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HOW  TO  EAT 


A  CURE  FOR"NERVES" 

THOMAS  CLARK  HINKLE,  M.D, 


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HOW  TO  EAT 

A    CURE    FOR    "NERVES" 


"Whosoever  wishes  to  eat  much  must 
eat  little."  Cornaro,  in  saying  this,  meant 
that  if  a  man  wished  to  eat  for  a  great 
many  days— that  is,  desired  a  long  life — 
he  must  eat  only  a  little  each  day. 


HOW  TO  EAT 

A    CURE    FOR    ^^NERVES" 


By 
THOMAS  CLARK  HINKLE.  M.  D. 


RAND  M9NALLY  &  COMPANY 
CHICAGO  NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  iq2i,  by 
Rand  M?Nally  &  Company 


>, 


THE  CONTENTS 


PAGE 


I.    Where  the  Trouble  Lies      ...  13 

II.    How  TO  Overcome  the  Trouble      .  31 

III.  Right  and  Wrong  Diet  for  Nervous 

People 55 

IV.  Value  of  Outdoor  Life  and  Exercise  79 

V.    Effect  of  Right  Living  on  Worry 

AND  Unhappiness 109 


* 'Nature,  desirous  to  preserve  man  in 
good  health  as  long  as  possible,  informs 
him  herself  how  he  is  to  act  in  time  of 
illness;  for  she  immediately  deprives  him, 
when  sick,  of  his  appetite  in  order  that 
he  may  eat  but  little." 

— CORNARO 


THE  INTRODUCTION 

This  author-physician's  cure  for  "nerves" 
vividly  recalls  the  simplicity  of  method  employed 
in  the  complete  restoration  to  health  of  one  of 
olden  time  whose  story  has  come  ringing  down  the 
ages  in  the  Book  of  Books.  Naaman,  captain  of 
the  host  of  the  king  of  Syria,  a  mighty  man  of 
valor  and  honorable  in  the  sight  of  all  men,  turned 
away  in  a  rage  when  Elisha,  the  prophet  of  the 
Most  High,  prescribed  for  his  dread  malady  a 
remedy  so  simple  that  it  was  despised  in  his  eyes. 
But  "his  servants  came  near  and  said  .... 
*  If  the  prophet  had  bid  thee  do  some  great  thing, 
wouldest  thou  not  have  done  it?'  " 

In  "How  to  Eat"  the  author  offers  the  sufferer 
from  "nerves"  a  remedy  as  simple  as  that  Elisha 
offered  Naaman.  He  gives  him  an  opportunity 
to  profit  by  his  well-tested  knowledge  that  over- 
eating and  rapidity  in  eating  are  ruinous  to  health 
and  shorten  life. 

It  is  seldom  that  there  emanates  from  the  pen 
of  a  doctor  a  book  which,  concerning  any  physical 
disorder,  minimizes  the  efforts  of  the  medical 
practitioner.  While  this  author-physician  gives 
full  credit  to  the  conscientious  physician  for  the 
great  service  he  is  able  to  render  in  all  other 
spheres  of  his  profession,  he  wholly  denies  the 
necessity  for  medical  care  in  cases  of  nervous 
breakdown,  and  discounts  liberally  the  benefits 


8  THE  INTRODUCTION 

to  be  derived  from  professional  advice  except  in 
so  far  as  the  doctor  is  the  patient's  counselor  and 
dictator  as  to  what  and  how  and  how  much  he 
shall  eat  and  drink,  and  the  way  he  shall  employ 
his  time. 

Any  discourse  is  valuable  which  incites  a  man 
having  a  marked  tendency  to  depressing,  morbid 
ideas,  to  rid  himself  of  them.  Dr.  Hinkle  helps 
the  sufferer  to  gain  that  confidence  and  cheer 
which  result  from  knowledge  of  certain  immunity 
from  dreaded  ills  and  positive  assurance  of  recovery 
by  mere  regulation  of  food  or  employment  along 
the  lines  of  simple,  everyday  living. 

But  that  alone  is  not  sufficient.  It  is  made  quite 
clear  that  no  one  thing  by  itself  will  insure  a  cure 
of  ''nerves."  The  cure  must  come  through  com- 
mon sense  exerted  along  several  related  avenues 
of  endeavor.  No  matter  how  steadfastly  one 
may  adhere  to  directions  as  to  abstaining  from 
harmful  food  and  injurious  methods  of  partaking 
of  those  foods  which  are  beneficial,  if  he  spends 
the  larger  portion  of  his  time  idly  rocking  in  a 
convenient  arm  chair,  exerting  neither  body 
nor  mind  nor  will,  that  which  might  be  gained 
by  proper  nutrition  is  largely  nullified  by  lack  of 
physical  exercise  and  mental  activity. 

That  this  little  book  may  serve  as  a  spur  to 
the  bodily  self-denial  and  self-repression  and  the 
intellectual  and  spiritual  upUft  which  make  for 
character-building,  is  the  very  evident  goal  of 
its  writer.    From  self-analysis  and  self-cure  he 


THE  INTRODUCTION  9 

has  worked  out  a  philosophy — a  system  or  art — 
by  which  those  afflicted  with  nervous  breakdown 
may  be  healed.  And  by  putting  into  print  the 
result  of  his  practical  experiments  in  diet  and 
exercise  he  has  broadened  immeasurably  the  scope 
of  his  helpfulness  to  all  nervebound  sufferers  by 
placing  within  their  reach  the  simplest  of  measures 
by  which  release  is  secured  from  a  condition  which 
wholly  incapacitates  for  active  service  or  even 
for  quiet,  everyday  usefulness. 

It  is  because  the  things  Dr.  Hinkle  advises 
are  so  commonplace,  and  because  the  doing  of 
them  day  after  day,  year  in  and  year  out,  is  so 
monotonous,  that  people  will  be  tempted  to  dis- 
regard or  make  light  of  their  helpfulness.  But 
the  commonplace  things  which  make  up  life  are 
all  important,  as  Susan  Coolidge  has  so  aptly 
expressed  in  these  lines  which  fittingly  illustrate 
the  author's  thought: 

"The  commonplace  sun  in  the  commonplace  sky 

Makes  up  the  commonplace  day. 
The  moon  and  the  stars  are  commonplace  things, 
And  the  flower  that  blooms  and  the  bird  that  sings; 
But  dark  were  the  world,  and  sad  our  lot 
If  the  flowers  failed,  and  the  sun  shone  not; 
And  God,  who  studies  each  separate  soul, 
Out  of  commonplace  lives  makes  his  beautiful  whole." 

It  therefore  behooves  the  sufferer  from  ''nerves " 
and  that  great  host  of  others  who  are  in  danger  of  a 
nervous  breakdown  if  they  do  not  speedily  mend 
their  ways  of  eating  and  living,  to  heed  the  kindly 


10  THE  INTRODUCTION 

admonitions  and  follow  the  precepts  of  this  author 
who  practices  what  he  preaches.  By  persistently 
doing  commonplace  things  in  the  most  common- 
place way,  keeping  ever  in  mind  the  great  objects 
to  be  attained  thereby — good  health,  good  cheer, 
and  increased  usefulness  throughout  along  life — 
the  reader  of  this  little  treatise  will  find  it  worth 
many,  many  times  its  size,  weight,  and  bulk. 
And  heeding  the  author's  admonition,  "Go  thou 
and  do  likewise,"  he  will  not  shorten  his  life 
or  lose  it  altogether  in  fruitless  quests  for  the 
strength  and  nerve  vigor  which  constantly  elude 
him  because  of  lack  of  self-control  and  failure  to 
persist  in  the  simple  but  efficacious  measures  of 

relief  here  outlined. 

M.  F.  S. 


I.   WHERE  THE  TROUBLE  LIES 


"What  we  leave  after  making  a  hearty 
meal  does  us  more  good  than  what  we 
have  eaten." 

— CORNARO 


HOW  TO  EAT 

A  CURE  FOR  ''NERVES^' 
I.  WHERE  THE  TROUBLE  LIES 
It  is  now  over  twenty  years  since  I  had 
my  first  nervous  breakdown.  About  ten 
years  later  I  had  another,  far  worse  than 
the  first  one.  The  first  lasted  six  months; 
the  second  a  little  more  than  two  and  one 
half  years.  Doubtless  if  I  had  not  in  the 
strangest  way  in  the  world  found  out  how 
to  cure  myself  it  would  have  lasted  until 
now,  unless  death  in  the  meantime  had 
come  to  my  relief.  But  right  here  I  want 
to  say  that  if  you  are  looking  for  some  new 
or  miraculous  treatment  for  such  unfortu- 
nate people  you  might  as  well  close  the  book 
now,  for  you  will  be  disappointed.  There 
is  a  cure  for  *' nerves**  but  the  cure  is  as 
old  as  the  world.  The  trouble  with  poor 
deluded  mortals  —  doctors  included — is,  we 

13 


14  HOW  TO  EAT 

are  constantly  looking  for  a  miracle  to  cure 
us,  but  if  we  look  back  on  all  the  real  cures 
that  we  have  ever  heard  about,  we  shall  find 
they  were  as  simple  as  the  sun  or  the  rain. 
And  in  the  name  of  common  sense  let  me 
ask:  what  is  the  difference  how  we  are 
cured  if  we  are  cured  and  are  happy  as  a 
result  of  it?  Isn't  that  enough?  Most 
certainly  it  is. 

And  now,  as  we  journey  along  through 
the  pages  of  this  book,  I  want  you  to 
know  that  these  words  have  been  writ- 
ten by  one  who  has  nothing  to  offer 
you  except  human  experience.  As  we 
proceed  you  will  notice  that  every  state- 
ment is  tremendously  positive.  When  a 
man  has  been  through  this  literal  hell  of 
"nerves"  he  knows  all  about  it  and  what 
can  be  done  for  it.  And  so  when  I  tell 
you  the  things  you  must  do  to  get  well 
and  stay  well,  I  want  you  to  understand 
that  I  know.  There  is  absolutely  no  the- 
ory to  be  found  in  these  pages.    If  you  put 


WHERE  THE  TROUBLE  LIES        15 

your  finger  in  the  fire  you  burn  it.  You 
don't  have  to  take  your  finger  out  of  the 
fire,  call  in  a  lot  of  learned  gentlemen  and 
say  to  them:  "Now  tell  me  your  candid 
opinion  about  my  finger.  Is  it  burned  or 
is  it  not?" 

And  I  am  just  as  positive  about  my  cure 
of  "nerves'*  as  you  could  be  that  fire 
burned  your  finger.  That  brings  me  to 
what  I  want  to  say  about  the  so-called 
"rest  cures"  at  the  sanitariums.  It  is  a 
well-known  fact  that  if  a  case  of  "nerves" 
is  pronounced  cured  at  a  sanitarium  the 
cure  is  only  temporary.  Sooner  or  later 
every  one  of  these  patients  goes  down  hill 
again. 

And  remember  I  am  talking  about  people 
who  have  nervous  breakdowns  THROUGH 
NO  FAULT  OF  THEIR  OWN.  I  have 
no  time  to  spare  for  the  person  who  has 
brought  on  his  own  trouble.  I  am  chiefly 
concerned  with  that  host  of  children  in 
America — and  there  is  a  host,  I  am  sorry 


16  HOW  TO  EAT 

to  say —  born  of  what  I  choose  to  call  **pre- 
nervous"  parents.  The  girls  of  such  par- 
ents frequently  break  down  in  high  school. 
And  many  of  the  finest  boys  that  I  know 
have  this  dreadful  "thing''  fastened  firmly 
upon  them  just  at  the  very  beginning  of 
their  lifework. 

You  may  think  I  am  a  little  vehement, 
but  to  me  one  of  the  most  damnable  and 
disgusting  things  in  the  world  is  that  the 
medical  profession  remains  so  ignorant 
concerning  the  real  cure  for  such  cases. 
I  believe  the  late  Sir  William  Osier  was 
the  greatest  physician  of  his  generation. 
He  was  not  only  a  man  of  talent,  he 
was  a  genius,  and  his  knowledge  of 
medicine  almost  passes  understanding. 
Yet  Osier  himself  was  as  much  in  the 
dark  concerning  the  real  cure  for  so-called 
neurasthenia  as  the  physicians  who  read 
his  works  on  practice.  If  one  wants  to 
find  out  how  ignorant  the  whole  profession 
is  on  the  subject  of  a  permanent  cure,  let 


WHERE  THE  TROUBLE  LIES        17 

the  thing  get  hold  of  him,  and  then 
let  him  make  the  rounds  of  the  physicians, 
follow  out  their  advice,  and  see  where  he 
comes  out! 

I  have  said  that  even  the  sanitariums 
of  this  country  —  and  for  that  matter  I 
might  have  said  of  any  other  country  —  do 
not  permanently  cure  these  people.  I  have 
ample  proof  of  this  statement.  I  have  met 
these  people  everywhere  and  no  doubt 
you  have,  too.  Quite  recently  the  subject 
was  brought  up  anew  to  me.  I  had 
written  an  article  on  the  subject  for  one  of 
the  magazines,  a  magazine  having  a  large 
circulation.  In  a  very  short  time  my  mail 
was  literally  flooded  with  letters.  Every 
incoming  mail  brought  great  numbers  of 
them.  They  came  from  physicians  of  the 
regular  school,  and  from  physicians  of  many 
other  schools,  too.  I  won't  mention  any 
of  them,  for  this  is  a  treatise  on  a  dreadful 
affliction  and  how  one  may  get  rid  of  it; 
it  is  not  intended  as  a  criticism  of  anyone. 

2 


18  HOW  TO  EAT 

I  have  no  desire  to  criticize  and  I  have  n't 
time.  I  am  stating  facts  interwoven  with 
my  own  life.  If  the  cure  is  real,  the  people 
will  find  it  out  after  they  have  tried  it;  if 
it  is  not,  they  will  also  find  that  out.  In 
fact,  it's  exactly  as  Gamaliel,  the  teacher  of 
Paul,  said  to  the  men  of  Israel  when  they 
would  have  slain  the  apostles  for  teaching 
Christ's  sayings,  "Refrain  from  these  men 
and  let  them  alone:  for  if  this  counsel  or 
this  work  be  of  men,  it  will  come  to  naught: 
but  if  it  be  of  God,  ye  cannot  overthrow 
it."  And  it's  exactly  the  same  way  with 
this  healing  art.  The  very  fact  that  phy- 
sicians of  all  schools  of  medicine — physi- 
cians who  were  sufferers  from  "nerves"  — 
wrote  me,  shows  plainly  that  they  could 
not  heal  themselves.  I  have  many  letters 
from  people  who  have  been  in  sanitariums 
for  years  and  who  still  have  "nerves." 
The  sanitariums  do  some  people  a  lot  of 
good,  but  they  cannot  remove  the  cause  of 
nervousness.     I  am  certain  that  the  very 


WHERE  THE  TROUBLE  LIES        19 

best  rest  cure  for  women  is  the  one  Dr. 
Weir  Mitchell  first  used.  But  such  women 
are  sure  to  go  down  again  and  again 
and  still  again  if  that  is  all  that  is  done 
for  them. 

Now  frankly,  if  Christian  Science  could 
cure  such  cases  and  make  them  stay  cured 
I  should  want  a  practitioner  of  this  cult 
to  treat  them.  But  Christian  Science  sim- 
ply cannot  cure  them  because  the  imder- 
lying  cause  of  this  trouble  is  physical,  not 
mental.  In  other  words,  the  mind  becomes 
ill  because  the  body  is  made  ill  by  certain 
poisons,  and  the  nature  of  the  disease  is  so 
peculiar  that  most  of  these  miserable  suf- 
ferers will  not  even  try  a  thing  unless  some 
one  brings  them  overwhelming  evidence  of 
its  having  wrought  a  cure.  Or,  if  they 
do  try  it,  they  usually  quit  the  treatment 
before  nature  has  had  time  to  do  her  work 
and  set  their  bodies  right. 

I  have  the  most  profound  sympathy  for 
such  people.      I  want  to  speak  directly 


20  HOW  TO  EAT 

to  them.  That  is  the  task  that  I  have  set 
myself  in  this  work.  I  want  to  talk 
directly  to  those  of  you  who  are  sufferers 
from  '* nerves.''  I  see  you  in  every  state, 
in  every  city,  in  every  village,  and  through- 
out the  farming  districts  of  this  country. 
I  have  received  letters  from  many  farmers 
who  are  suffering  with  this  ''thing."  To 
them  let  me  say,  I  know  just  how  you 
feel,  and  from  the  very  bottom  of  my  heart 
I  pity  you.  I  know  the  horrible  suffering 
of  each  one  of  you.  I  don't  care  what 
your  ambition  has  been  or  is.  I  don't 
care  what  your  situation  in  life  may  be. 
I  don't  care  how  rich  or  how  poor  you 
are.  I  don't  care  how  much  trouble  you 
have  had,  or  the  nature  of  it.  I  want 
you  to  know  these  words  are  being  writ- 
ten by  one  who  knows  more  about  your 
sufferings  than  you  can  imagine.  I  want 
you  to  believe  this,  because  it  is  true. 
If  you  have  longed  and  prayed  for  death, 
remember  that   the   one  who   is  writing 


WHERE  THE  TROUBLE  LIES        21 

these  words  also  has  longed  and  prayed 
for  death.  But  one  thing  you  must  be 
sure  to  remember:  while  you  are  waiting 
and  trying  to  get  well  you  must  have 
patience, 

I  recollect  one  beautiful  day  in  early 
spring  when  traveling  in  Nebraska  I  passed 
a  little  cemetery.  How  sweet  and  restful 
the  place  seemed,  and  as  I  looked  out  over 
those  little  white  stones  I  prayed  silently 
that  the  great  God  who  made  me  would 
not  hold  me  much  longer  on  earth,  that  He 
would  soon  grant  me  the  rest  and  peace 
which  I  believed  was  to  be  found  only  in 
death  and  the  grave.  But  remember  this: 
In  those  dark  days  never  for  a  moment 
did  I  think  of  taking  my  own  life!  These 
words  may  reach  some  one  who  has  had 
such  a  thought.  If  so,  I  say  to  you  that  to 
take  one's  life  is  the  most  cowardly  thing 
a  human  being  can  do.  This  is  the  only 
place  where  I  feel  like  being  severe  with 
you  people.    Shame  on  the  man  or  woman 


22  HOW  TO  EAT 

who  will  not  go  on  to  the  end  fighting  hon- 
orably! And  now  if  you  have  ever  given 
thought  to  such  a  thing,  blot  it  from  your 
mind  forever.  I  can  see  how  these  misera- 
ble people  might  long  for  death,  as  I  did. 
But  no  matter  how  we  may  long  for  release 
through  death,  the  God  of  nature  must  be 
the  judge  of  our  time  of  going. 

Now  this  brings  me  to  what  I  want 
to  say  about  such  sufferers  going  insane. 
Believe  me,  they  never  do!  Remember 
this  always.  You  won't  become  insane. 
You  couldn't  if  you  tried!  In  letter  after 
letter  among  the  flood  of  them  I  have  had 
from  all  over  this  country  and  Canada,  I 
read  how  the  poor  sufferer  feared  he  or  she 
might  be  going  insane.  I  know,  poor  souls, 
just  how  you  feel.  That  feeling  is,  I  think, 
the  most  dreadful  of  all  things  connected 
with  ** nerves."  I  suffered  from  it  for 
years.  It  is  a  dreadful  feeling,  but  there 
is  not  the  least  bit  of  danger  of  such  a 
thing  happening  to  you.    You  will  not  go 


WHERE  THE  TROUBLE  LIES        23 

insane.  Such  persons  can't.  Do  you  really 
get  me?  Such  persons  cannot  go  insane. 
This  disease  is  nothing  but  what  we 
call  a  functional  nervous  trouble.  And 
so  forget  about  the  danger  of  insanity 
for  all  time.  You  can  be  cured,  but  you 
will  make  your  return  to  health  just  that 
much  slower  by  harboring  this  fear.  And 
it  would  be  simply  foolish  for  you  to  go  on 
thinking  it  possible  after  I— let  me  say  it 
again  — after  I  have  told  you  that  it  cannot 
happen.  For  the  value  of  this  treatise 
lies  in  the  "L'*  Its  value  is  just  like  that 
of  the  treatise  by  Cornaro.  He  lived  it. 
And  so  likewise  have  I  lived  it.  I  have 
been  laid  low  with  this  malady.  I  have 
staggered  in  black  despair  with  staring 
eyes  and  bleeding  feet  and  crying  soul 
along  this  road  strewn  with  thorns  and 
stones.  I  know  what  it  is  to  lie  awake 
all  night  and  cry  like  a  baby,  with  none 
to  know  and  none  to  tell  me  what  to  do. 
I   know  what   it  is  to  be  tremendously 


24  HOW  TO  EAT 

ambitious.  Ambition!  Ambition!  Ah,  God 
of  Heaven!  How  a  poor  soul  suffers  who 
beyond  everything  else,  craves  to  be  able 
to  do  something  big  in  this  world  because 
he  knows  he  should,  yet  is  held  down  by 
this  dreadful  thing,  ** nerves!**  And  how 
little,  how  unspeakably  little,  do  physicians, 
even  the  greatest  of  them,  know,  actually 
know,  how  we  suffer,  unless  indeed  there 
be  one  in  whose  own  body  the  fiend  has 
sunk  deep  its  talons. 

After  I  had  my  first  breakdown  I  made 
up  my  mind  to  study  medicine  because 
something  told  me  that  I  was  one  of  those 
** peculiar*'  people  who  just  think  there  is 
something  the  matter  with  them.  Is  it 
not  strange  that  with  all  the  advance  that 
has  been  made  in  general  medicine,  little 
or  nothing  has  been  done  for  the  relief  of 
the  people  born  with  this  curse  hanging 
over  them? 

I  wish  this  book  could  be  put  into  the 
hands  of  every  nervous  parent  for,  think 


WHERE  THE  TROUBLE  LIES        25 

as  you  may,  all  nervous  parents  beget 
nervous  children.  But  does  it  follow 
that  such  children  should  have  a  nervous 
breakdown  almost  before  they  are  out  of 
their  teens?  No,  decidedly  not;  and  what 
is  more,  they  never  should  and  never 
would  break  down,  if  they  had  proper  food. 

I  look  back  with  horror  on  the  man^^ 
nights  of  my  childhood  when  I  suffered 
with  "night  terrors."  And  right  here  let 
me  say:  no  child  will  ever  have  night  ter- 
rors if  he  is  given  just  what  he  should  eat, 
and  is  kept  from  overeating.  And  now  a 
few  words  about  the  first  great  point  con- 
cerning the  prevention  as  well  as  the  cure 
of  "nerves." 

Nervous  people,  and  many  others  as 
well,  eat  too  much.  That,  you  say,  is 
nothing  new.  But  that  is  just  where  the 
dreadful  wrong  begins;  and  why  there  has 
been  tragedy  after  tragedy,  and  why  even 
while  this  is  being  written  there  will  be 
many    more    tragedies.      You    will    hear 


26  HOW  TO  EAT 

lecturers  say  —  I  myself  have  said  it,  and 
to  large  audiences:  "You  people  eat  too 
much/'  But  if  that's  all  that  is  said, 
people  straightway  go  away  and  say: 
**0h,  yes,  he's  right,  of  course.  We  all 
eat  too  much."  And  there  it  ends.  Until 
recently  people  did  not  know  —  most  of 
them  don't  know  yet  —  that  each  day  they 
are  actually  bringing  the  grave  nearer  by 
overeating. 

Not  long  ago  the  great  Ufe  insurance 
companies  of  this  country  held  a  notable 
convention  in  the  city  of  New  York.  Now 
after  everything  had  been  said  and  done, 
after  every  phase  of  life  insurance  had 
been  discussed,  what  do  you  suppose  was 
the  great  outstanding  statement  from  that 
remarkable  body  of  men  who  know  more 
about  why  people  die  than  any  other  body 
of  people  on  earth?  It  was  this:  *'The 
average  American  man  or  woman  dies  at 
the  age  of  43  because  he  eats  what  he 
wants  to  eat  rather  than  what  he  should 


WHERE  THE  TROUBLE  LIES        27 

eat/'  That  means,  of  course,  that  prac- 
tically all  Americans  overeat.  They  are 
all  like  the  child  who  says,  "Fm  not 
hungry  for  bread  and  butter.  I'm  hungry 
for  cake."  And  I  find  that  most  of  these 
poor  deluded  nervous  sufferers  eat  what 
they  want  under  the  supposition  that  it  is 
good  for  them  because  they  crave  it.  I 
myself  used  to  do  so.  I  would  eat  candy 
by  the  pound.  And  it  is  odd  but  quite 
true  that  nervous  people  crave  the  very 
things  that  hurt  them  most.  But  there 
is  no  more  sense  in  eating  what  you  crave 
because  you  crave  it  than  there  is  in  the 
man  who  is  addicted  to  alcohol,  drinking 
alcohol  because  he  craves  it.  I  once  used 
tobacco;  I  craved  it,  but  I  did  not  need  it 
just  because  I  craved  it.  It  is  true  the 
body  naturally  needs  some  fats,  some  car- 
bohydrates; in  fact,  a  balanced  ration,  as 
we  shall  see  later.  But  I  want  to  make  it 
mighty  plain  here  that  never  was  there  a 
greater  error  than  that  of  supposing  you 


28  HOW  TO  EAT 

need  chocolates  or  sweets  just  because 
you  crave  them.  And  you  don't  need  to 
overeat,  and  keep  on  doing  it,  just  because 
you  must  eat. 


II.  HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE 
TROUBLE 


"He  who  pursues  a  regular  course  of 
life  need  not  be  apprehensive  of  illness,  as 
he  who  has  guarded  against  the  cause 
need  not  be  afraid  of  the  effect." 

— CORNARO 


11.  HOW  TO  OVERCOME 
THE  TROUBLE 

We  have  now  come  to  the  second  step 
in  the  cure  of  "nerves**— eating  the  right 
food  in  the  right  way.  You  must  chew  all 
food  until  it  is  of  the  consistency  of  cream, 
and  you  must  also  sip  all  liquids  slowly. 
And  now,  as  you  read  these  things  that  I 
have  set  down,  I  want  you  to  remember 
this:  doing  any  one  thing — and  doing  that 
alone  —  will  not  cure  this  malady.  No,  it 
is  doing  a  number  of  things  at  the  right 
time.  I  know  this  is  true  because  I  have 
tried  it.  For  a  time  I  chewed  my  food  to 
a  cream,  but  that  was  the  only  thing  I  did 
in  an  endeavor  to  get  well.  I  was  doing 
none  of  the  other  things  that  are  absolutely 
necessary  for  a  cure.  This  is  one  great 
trouble  with  all  such  people.    They  will 

31 


32  HOW  TO  EAT 

Fletcherize  for  a  time  and  then  say  there 
is  nothing  to  that  because  it  does  not  cure 
them.  Well,  as  Fve  said,  that  alone  will 
not,  and  I  want  to  dwell  at  length  on  this 
because  nobody  knows  as  well  as  I  do, 
what  harm  such  a  belief  does  the  nervous 
sufferer. 

Trying  out  Fletcherizing  alone,  which  I 
say  must  be  done  together  with  other  things 
if  you  want  to  get  well  and  stay  well,  is 
like  taking  the  handle  of  an  axe  and  going 
out  into  the  woods  to  cut  down  a  tree. 
Now  with  Fletcherizing  you  have  a  per- 
fectly good  handle,  but  you  know  very 
well  that  you  can't  cut  a  tree  down  with 
only  an  axe  handle.  But  that  is  not  the 
fault  of  the  handle.  The  fault  is  obvi- 
ously your  own.  Now  suppose  you  get  the 
axe  and  fit  the  handle  to  it.  You  can 
then  cut  the  tree  down  if  you  work  hard 
enough  at  the  task.  Again,  suppose  you 
cut  the  tree  half  way  through  and  quit. 
Will  the  axe  keep  on  until  the  work  is  done? 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  TROUBLE  33 

You  know  it  will  not,  and  you  very  well 
know  if  you  wish  to  be  cured  you  must 
keep  on  doing  your  part  of  the  work  or 
dieting  will  be  of  no  value  whatever  to 
you.  Now  suppose  a  man  comes  along 
and  tells  you  that  the  axe  you  have  is  no 
good  and  therefore  it  is  no  use  for  you  to 
keep  on  trying  to  use  it.  That  is  exactly 
what  some  physicians  still  say  about 
Fletcherizing. 

But  you  say,  "  I  must  cut  this  tree  down. 
Nobody  will  do  it  for  me;  how  shall  I  get 
it  down?  Can  you  give  me  an  axe  that 
will  cut  it  down?'' 

"Oh,  no,''  he  replies,  '*but  anyway 
there's  no  use  fooling  with  that  one." 

Then,  if  you  are  determined  to  do  the 
work,  you  say,  ''I  have  to  cut  the  tree 
down.  You  have  no  other  axe  to  offer 
me,  so  I'm  going  to  try  the  one  I  have." 
And  you  go  ahead  and  cut  down  the  tree. 
Then  just  as  you  have  finished,  the  man 
comes  your  way  again,  and  in  great  delight 


3 


34  HOW  TO  EAT 

you  call  out  to  him:  **Come  and  see!  I 
cut  this  tree  down  with  the  axe  you  said 
was  no  good!" 

The  man  comes  over  to  you  and  says, 
*'  Where's  the  tree?    I  don't  see  it ! '' 

You  are  astonished  and  you  tell  him, 
"There  it  lies  on  the  ground  right  before 
your  eyes!    Can't  you  see  it?" 

But  he  turns  and  walks  away  saying: 
** There  is  no  tree  there;  it  is  all  in  your 
mind." 

This  is  exactly  what  people  with 
"nerves"  have  been  told  again  and  again 
by  physicians,  by  relatives,  and  by  most 
other  people  who  have  never  had  "nerves. " 

I  tell  you  these  things  so  that  when 
you  begin  to  eat  sparingly  and  chew  your 
food  to  a  cream  you  may  fortify  yourself 
against  well-meaning  but  mistaken  friends 
and  relatives.  And,  oddly  enough,  it  does 
seem  that  the  individual  with  "nerves" 
has  more  friends  and  relatives  than  any 
other  person  in  the  world. 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  TROUBLE  35 

Remember  you  must  not  only  chew  your 
food  to  the  consistency  of  cream  for  one 
or  two  months,  you  must  make  this  prac- 
tice a  lifelong  habit.  If  you  cannot  take 
time  to  eat  a  meal  in  this  way,  you  had 
much  better  go  hungry.  To  people  who 
travel  and  must  frequently  take  their 
meals  in  railroad  eating  houses,  I  would 
say,  get  some  bread  and  butter  sandwiches 
and  eat  them  slowly  while  on  the  train. 
There  is  always  a  chance  to  secure  all  you 
need  to  eat,  too.  You  may  not  always  be 
able  to  sit  an  hour  at  the  table  —  the  time 
we  should  give  to  a  meal  if  we  eat  as  we 
should.  I  know  many  object  to  this  rule 
on  the  groimd  that  if  we  followed  it  we 
should  get  nothing  else  done.  But  that 
is  nonsense.  Did  not  the  Master  of  us  all 
say,  "Are  there  not  twelve  hours  in  the 
day?"  Then  can  we  not  devote  three  of 
the  twelve  to  our  food?  If  we  have  nine 
hours  in  which  we  are  at  our  highest 
efficiency,  is  it  not  good  sense,  if  we  eat 


36  HOW  TO  JEAT 

three  meals  a  day,  to  give  three  hours 
to  these  meals?  There  is  only  one  sane 
answer  to  the  question;  we  should  take  an 
hour  for  a  meal. 

*  Every  now  and  then  some  magazine 
writer  will  state  that  the  chewing  of  food 
to  a  cream  does  not  help  anybody.  He 
will  tell  you  that  you  can  swallow  your 
food  any  old  way  and  it  will  not  hurt  you 
in  the  least.  In  fact,  I  actually  saw  an 
article  in  one  of  our  leading  periodicals 
containing  just  such  statements.  We 
should,  I  suppose,  have  onjy  pity  for  an 
editor  who  would  give  space  to  such  stuff, 
and  should  also  pity  the  poor  wretch  who 
by  writing  it  is  striving  to  attain  notoriety. 
At  any  rate  there  is  one  excellent  thing 
about  such  lies,  they  do  harm  for  only  a 
little  while.  When  people  find  out  that 
a  thing  is  harmful  to  them,  they  usually 
quit  it,  no  matter  how  many  notoriety 
seekers  are  urging  and  encouraging  them 
to  keep  on. 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  TROUBLE  37 

Usually  the  sufferer  with  "nerves"  is 
the  only  one  in  the  household  who  will 
eat  sparingly  and  chew  his  food  slowly. 
But  now  and  then  I  find  an  intelligent, 
sympathetic  man  who  will  do  so  because 
it  is  helpful  to  his  wife.  He  sympathizes 
with  her  infirmity,  and  with  fine  self-denial 
eats  as  she  does.  And  note  this:  he  usually 
derives  benefit  from  so  doing.  Time  after 
time  when  I  have  put  a  nervous  woman 
under  this  regimen,  and  then  her  husband 
elected  to  go  along  with  her,  I  have  had  the 
man  come  to  me  and  say:  "Well,  doctor, 
I  declare  Fm  feeling  a  whole  lot  better 
myself!  I  don*t  get  sleepy  any  more  during 
the  daytime,  and  that  pain  I  used  to  have 
in  the  region  of  my  liver  is  gone!''  And 
so  on  and  on. 

The  fact  is  just  this:  anybody  who 
follows  the  rules  that  I  learned  to  apply 
in  my  own  case  cannot  fail  to  be  bene- 
fited. And  although  those  not  inclined  to 
"nerves"  can  eat  a  greater  variety  of  food. 


38  HOW  TO  EAT 

it's  greatly  to  be  desired  when  there  is  a 
nervous  person  in  a  household  of  grown- 
ups that  all  other  members  of  the  family 
enter  together  into  this  thing.  It  could 
not  fail  to  help  every  one  of  them.  To 
be  truthful,  in  the  beginning  you  will  all 
find  it  mighty  hard  to  persist  in  chewing 
all  your  food  to  a  cream.  Mouthful  after 
mouthful  of  food  will  get  away  from  you 
when  you  are  not  thinking.  This  just 
goes  to  show  how  we  are  in  the  habit  of 
bolting  our  food.  At  first  people  who 
Fletcherize  or  chew  their  food  perfectly, 
usually  lose  weight.  I  most  certainly  did. 
I  lost  about  twenty  pounds  because  of  it, 
but  I  was  so  well  and  felt  so  good  I  could 
almost  have  jumped  over  the  North  Star. 
I  know  that,  unfortimately,  a  lot  of 
people  with  "nerves'*  have  started  to 
chew  their  food  carefully  and  to  eat  spar- 
ingly, but  the  minute  they  found  them- 
selves losing  weight  they  were  frightened 
and  quit.   They  went  on  carrying  that  ten 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  TROUBLE  39 

or  twenty  or  thirty  pounds  of  flesh  and 
all  the  time  suffering  the  tortures  of  the 
damned  just  in  order  that  they  might  keep 
it.  But  of  what  benefit  are  a  certain  num- 
ber of  extra  poimds  of  flesh  and  how  can 
a  man  explain  such  a  senseless  action? 

The  astonishing  thing  is  that  many  phy- 
sicians are  willing  to  condemn  a  cure  just 
as  soon  as  they  find  the  patient  has  lost  a 
pound  of  beef.  But  as  I  said  before,  the 
primary  mission  of  man  in  this  world  is 
not  to  raise  beef.  I  do  not  find  fault  with 
the  raising  of  beef  in  the  feeding  yards, 
but  if  beef  must  be  raised  let  us  confine 
the  industry  to  the  cattle  pens  and  stock 
yards.  Let  us  not  worship  it  to  the  degree 
that  we  would  rather  live  in  hell  than  part 
with  a  few  extra  pounds  that  overload 
our  own  bodies. 

Now  just  here  I  want  it  distinctly 
understood,  as  I  have  said  before,  that 
this  text  is  primarily  for  functional  nervous 
cases.     Tubercular   people   belong   to   an 


40  HOW  TO  EAT 

entirely  different  class.  They  should  live 
out  of  doors  day  and  night  and  should, 
if  possible,  be  treated  at  outdoor  institu- 
tions established  for  such  cases.  But  the 
individual  with  ** nerves"  will  find  what 
he  needs  and  will  find  it  abundantly  if  he 
has  enough  determination  to  take  hold  of 
it  and  keep  at  it. 

On  the  part  of  many  it  will  take  all  the 
determination  they  have  to  chew  their 
food  to  a  cream  and  always  eat  sparingly. 
In  regard  to  the  amount  of  food  taken, 
judgment  must  of  course  be  used.  We 
all  know  that  it  is  possible  to  eat  too  little. 
But  you  should  always  quit  eating  while 
you  still  feel  you  would  like  a  little  more. 
I  know  of  no  better  guide  than  this  to  offer 
you.  But  I  have  observed  that  the  per- 
son who  eats  slowly  and  chews  his  food  to 
a  cream  never  eats  as  much  food  as  he 
would  if  he  bolted  it.  It  is  just  like  letting 
a  thirsty  horse  drink  water.  I  remember, 
as  a   boy   on   the   farm,   when   I   led  a 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  TROUBLE  41 

very  thirsty  horse  from  the  field  to  the 
water  tank  how  rapidly  he  would  swallow. 
If  my  father  were  with  me,  after  the  horse 
had  drunk  a  while  he  would  say,  **Make 
him  hold  his  head  up."  Frequently  when 
I  did  so  the  horse  would  draw  a  long  breath 
and  drink  no  more.  Had  he  gone  right 
on  drinking,  as  a  thirsty  horse  will  if  you 
permit  him  to  do  so,  he  might  have  drunk 
twice  as  much  as  was  good  for  him.  And 
that 's  the  way  people  eat.  As  a  result  the 
horse  that  drinks  and  drinks  and  drinks 
when  he  is  very  thirsty  sometimes  dies  in 
a  few  hours.  I  have  seen  a  horse  die  from 
drinking  too  much  water  and  I  have  also 
seen  people  die  in  a  few  hours  after  a  terri- 
ble gorge  that  they  could  not  get  rid  of. 
Do  you  know  that  most  nervous  people 
have  a  way  of  sitting  down  to  the  table  and 
eating  until  they  are  literally  full?  If  you 
could  take  out  the  stomach  of  such  a  person 
and  look  at  it,  the  sight  would  frighten  you. 
And  with  good  reason.    For  as  a  result  of 


42  HOW  TO  EAT 

this  habit  many  nervous  people  have  dilated 
stomachs.  But  if  they  would  correct 
their  manner  of  eating  there  is  usually 
enough  tone  in  the  muscular  walls  of  the 
stomach  to  get  it  back  to  normal.  I 
marvel  again  and  again  over  how  miracu- 
lously nature  restores  herself  even  after 
she  has  been  terribly  abused,  if  only  she 
is  given  a  chance. 

I  am  certain  that  all  human  beings  would 
be  more  efficient  if  they  chewed  all  solid 
food  to  a  cream  and  sipped  all  liquids 
slowly.  The  late  Professor  William  James, 
the  great  Harvard  psychologist,  testified  to 
the  value  of  such  a  habit,  as  did  a  number 
of  other  distinguished  Harvard  professors. 
I  regret  that  some  physicians  still  hold  out 
in  their  belief  that  it  does  no  good  although 
the  evidence  stands  out  as  clearly  before 
them  as  a  tree  along  the  roadside.  But 
they  are  like  the  physician  who  some  years 
ago  declared  that  bathing  was  bad  for 
people.     I  recall  how  hard  we  all  bore  down 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  TROUBLE  43 

upon  him,  as  he  richly  deserved,  and  how 
the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Asso- 
ciation printed  a  short  poem  ridiculing 
him.  I  am  quite  certain  that  the  members 
of  the  Regular  school  of  medicine  have  pro- 
gressed infinitely  farther  toward  the  cure 
of  diseases  than  members  of  all  the  other 
schools  combined.  I  do  not  say  this  sim- 
ply because  I  happen  to  be  a  physician  of 
the  Regular  school;  I  say  it  because  a  can- 
did survey  of  what  has  been  accomplished, 
and  by  whom,  proves  it.  But  as  to  diet, 
we  have  done  little  compared  with  what 
we  should  do.  We  have  made  no  greater 
progress  along  this  line  because  so  many 
of  us  have  been  blinded  by  prejudice  — the 
curse  of  the  human  race. 

With  regard  to  chewing  all  food  to  a 
cream,  most  modem  writers  on  dietetics, 
while  acknowledging  that  this  super-masti- 
cation is  useful,  maintain  that  it  does  not 
increase  the  value  of  the  food.  But  they 
err  greatly  in  this,  as  we  can  prove  in  a 


44  HOW  TO  EAT 

very  few  words:  If  a  certain  amount  of 
proteins,  fats,  and  carbohydrates  is  bolted 
by  a  nervous  man  suffering  from  a  break- 
down, it  will  cause  intestinal  toxemia  as 
a  result  of  the  bolted  food,  but  if  he  chews 
the  food  to  a  cream  it  will  be  digested  in  a 
normal  manner  and  will  not  cause  gas  in 
the  stomach  or  intestines.  The  proper 
amount  of  food  is  absorbed  and  nourishes 
the  man  as  it  should.  Now  did  not  the 
thorough  mastication  of  that  food  increase 
the  value  of  the  proteins,  fats,  and  carbohy- 
drates? The  thing  is  a  self-evident  fact. 
In  the  first  case  a  man  takes  food  which 
quickly  turns  to  a  loathsome  poison.  In 
the  second  instance  the  same  kind  of  food 
is  so  thoroughly  mixed  with  the  ptyalin 
in  the  saliva  that  whatever  is  eaten  becomes 
of  value  as  protein  or  fat  or  some  other 
food  element. 

After  many  years  of  sad  experience  with 
this  malady  we  call  "nerves"  I  am  con- 
vinced that  the  reason  why  people  have  this 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  TROUBLE  45 

disease  is  because  they  are  literally  ''food 
drunk."    I  have  treated  men  who  had  been 
on  an  alcohol  debauch  and  I  know  how 
terribly  depressed  they  are  after  such  a 
spree  is  over.     It  is  exactly  the  same  way 
with  the  pre-nervous  people  that  break 
down.    They  sit  down  to  a  big  meal  and 
overeat.    There  is  a  temporary  stimulus, 
just  as  in  the  case  of  the  person  who  takes 
intoxicants,  followed  by  that  terrible  men- 
tal depression  that  all  who  have  suffered 
from  "nerves"  know.     And  because  the 
individual  with  the  ''nerves"  is  overeating 
two  or  three    times  each  day,  he  stays 
drunk  with  the  poisons  that  form  in  his 
stomach  and  intestines.    Such  people  over- 
assimilate  the  poisonous  products  of  pro- 
teins, especially  of  sugars.    Of  course  this 
may  seem  oddly  stated  because  we  would 
not  want  any  absorption  of  the  poisons  in 
the   intestines,  but   it    is    probable    that 
nature  can  and  does  take  care  of  a  little 
of  it  there  in  the  healthy  individual. 


46  HOW  TO  EAT 


It  IS  periectiy  aDsura  to  say,  as  some 
sicians  still  continue  to  say,  that  no  poison- 
ous matter  is  ever  absorbed  in  the  intes- 
tinal tract.  Give  a  child  something  that 
causes  intestinal  indigestion  and  see  how 
quickly  he  has  a  rise  in  temperature.  This 
fever  is  the  direct  result  of  poisons  absorbed 
in  the  intestines.  In  the  case  of  the  nervous 
adult,  however,  this  poison  does  not  as 
often  result  in  fever  as  it  does  in  a  horrible 
mental  depression  and  a  complete  inability 
to  perform  any  sort  of  work. 

And  so  there  seems  no  question  but  that 
this  terrible  malady  we  call  "nerves,"  or 
a  nervous  breakdown  in  any  of  its  many 
forms,  is  in  a  majority  of  cases  the  result 
of  the  wrong  eating  habits  of  the  individual. 
The  chewing  of  all  food  to  a  cream  will 
go  far  toward  curing  the  trouble,  but  in 
most  cases  this  alone  will  not  effect  a  cure. 
It  would  not  have  done  so  in  my  own  case, 
although  I  did  see  much  improvement  as  a 
result  of  that  practice  alone. 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  TROUBLE  47 

And  here  I  want  to  say  this:  There  are 
many  wh#  say  they  cannot  eat  acid  fruits 
because  of  the  distress  they  cause.  Now 
if  such  people  would  always  chew  an  apple, 
a  pear,  or  other  fruit  to  a  cream,  no  distress 
would  result  from  eating  fresh  fruit.  But 
such  people  must  follow  in  detail  the  diet 
I  shall  give  farther  on. 

Now,  facts  cannot  be  stated  too  strongly. 
It  is  certain  acid  fruits  will  cause  distress  if 
you  do  not  chew  them  to  a  cream.     I  would 
swell  up  like  a  toad  if  I  ate  only  one  apple 
hurriedly.    I  don't  dare  think  what  might 
happen  to  me  if  I  ate  three  or  four  in  that 
way.    I  might  possibly  find  myself  trans- 
formed into  a  human  balloon  and  float  away 
into  space.    But  I  don't  eat  apples  that 
way— not   now.    Some   who   read  these 
pages  may  think  it  very  strange,  yet  it  is 
quite  true  that  there  really  are  persons 
suffering   with    "nerves"   who   have   not 
gumption  enough  to  follow  this  simple  rule 
of  chewing  all  food  to  a  cream.    I  despair 


48  HOW  TO  EAT 

of  ever  helping  those  people.  They  still 
continue  to  dispose  of  a  big  meal  in  fifteen 
minutes,  and  then  insist  they  have  chewed 
all  their  food  carefully.  I  have  had  that 
thing  happen  right  before  my  own  eyes. 
Then  think  of  their  complaining  that  they 
cannot  eat  apples  because  they  cause  so 
much  gas  in  the  stomach! 

One  reason  why  a  large  number  of  such 
people  are  troubled  with  gas,  even  though 
they  do  chew  their  food  to  a  cream,  is 
because  they  immediately  follow  a  meal 
with  one  or  two  cups  of  tea  or  coffee. 
Now  please  remember  this:  An  individual 
afflicted  with  "nerves'*  has  no  business 
drinking  either  tea  or  coffee.  He  should 
let  them  both  alone.  Plain  hot  water  is 
the  very  best  drink  in  the  world  for  a  nerv- 
ous person.  If  you  want  a  drink  after 
your  meal  drink  a  cup  of  plain  hot  water. 
And  you  should  also  drink  a  cup  of  hot 
water  half  an  hour  before  breakfast.  If  you 
do  not  care  for  breakfast,  and  feel  you  do 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  TROUBLE  49 

not  need  this  meal,  drink  the  hot  water 
anyway.  The  victim  of  "nerves'*  should 
never  drink  during  the  meal  but  after  it,  if 
he  must  drink  anything  at  all.  He  should 
also  drink  a  pint  or  more  of  cold  water 
between  meals  every  day. 

Now,  another  thing  with  regard  to  chew- 
ing all  solid  food  to  a  cream.  It  has  been 
proved  over  and  over  again  in  my  own  case 
and  in  that  of  many  others,  that  in  doing 
this  the  brain  and  muscles  are  both  made 
stronger  and  keener  for  work,  that  those 
who  chew  their  food  in  this  way  have 
much  greater  endurance,  both  mental  and 
physical,  than  those  who  do  not. 

Today  if  I  should  relax  my  vigilance  in 
respect  to  chewing  my  food  I  should  soon 
go  down  again.  But  with  this  aid,  which 
I  now  so  easily  employ,  combined  with 
exactly  the  right  things  to  eat,  I  find  I 
need  have  no  fear.  It  has  been  ten  years 
since  my  last  breakdown  and  in  that  inter- 
val I  have  done  the  very  best  work  and  by 


50  HOW  TO  EAT 

far  the  hardest  brain  work  of  a  Ufetime. 
I  do  not  beHeve  people  break  down  from 
overwork.  You  may  think  that  a  per- 
fectly absurd  statement.  But  I  have  good 
grounds  upon  which  to  base  my  belief. 
If  nervous  people  would  eat  sparingly  and 
chew  their  food  to  a  cream,  eating  the  foods 
I  shall  mention  later  on,  I  am  confident 
they  would  rarely,  if  ever,  break  down. 

It  is  certain  that  in  the  last  ten  years, 
with  the  greatest  mental  strain  on  me,  I 
should  have  gone  down  again,  and  perhaps 
more  than  once,  if  I  had  not  found  what 
caused  "nerves'*  and  how  to  prevent  it. 
In  the  meantime  I  have  written  ten  or 
more  books,  and  every  writer,  at  least, 
knows  what  a  nerve-racking  profession 
writing  is.  In  addition  to  all  this  mental 
labor  I  have  gone  right  ahead  with  my 
medical  practice.  Surely  there  is  balm  in 
this  particular  Gilead. 

But  if  you  will  not  chew  your  food  to 
a  cream  you  need  not  expect  to  win  the 


HOW  TO  OVERCOME  THE  TROUBLE  51 

entire  reward.  And  you  must  do  this  not 
only  one  day  or  one  week  or  one  month  or 
one  year,  but  all  the  days,  weeks,  months, 
and  years  that  you  may  live.  And,  alas! 
I  know  only  too  well  all  the  trouble  well- 
meaning  but  deluded  people  who  sit  at 
the  table  with  a  nervous  individual  will 
make  him  when  they  discover  how  much 
time  he  is  taking  to  chew  his  food.  At 
first,  because  of  the  length  of  time  I  spent 
at  a  meal,  such  people  thought  I  must  be 
eating  as  much  as  a  horse.  But,  here  and 
there,  for  I  was  in  many  places,  when 
people  foimd  out  what  I  was  doing,  they 
would  only  courteously  deride  me  for  being 
so  gullible  about  what  they  termed  fads. 

We  are  all  well  aware  that  the  vast 
majority  of  Americans  do  not  chew  their 
food  to  a  cream  or  anything  like  it.  And 
there  are  those,  therefore,  who  advance  as 
an  argument  that  because  the  majority  do 
not  there  must  be  something  wrong  with 
the  minority  who  do.    Well,  let  us  follow 


52  HOW  TO  EAT 

this  out  a  little:  Not  so  many  hundred 
years  ago  everybody  believed  the  world 
was  flat  But  their  theory  did  not  make 
it  flat.  And  so,  even  though  thousands 
of  people  who  crowd  our  eating  houses  do 
bolt  their  food,  that  does  not  prove  there 
is  no  danger  in  the  practice.  And  they 
who  do  it  are  digging  their  graves  with 
their  teeth. 
Chew  your  food! 


III.     RIGHT  AND  WRONG  DIET 
FOR   NERVOUS  PEOPLE 


*'He  who  leads  a  sober  and  regular  life, 
and  commits  no  excess  in  his  diet,  can 
suffer  but  little  from  disorders  of  any 
kind." 

— CORNARO 


III.     RIGHT  AND   WRONG  DIET 
FOR  NERVOUS  PEOPLE 

People  who  are  the  offspring  of  nervous 
parents  and  who  have  had  a  nervous  break- 
down should  not  eat  commercial  sugar,  eggs, 
or  animal  food  of  any  kind  whatever.  These 
statements  may  seem  wholly  unimportant 
to  some  people,  but  I  realize  what  a  tre- 
mendous bomb  I  throw  into  the  camps  of 
others  when  they  read  them.  You  see, 
for  centuries  people  have  believed  meat 
and  eggs  to  be  the  best  of  all  foods;  so 
when  I  make  a  statement  like  the  fore- 
going, the  effect  is  not  unlike  that  which 
followed  Columbus'  statement  that  no 
matter  what  people  believed,  the  fact  was 
that  the  earth  was  round,  not  flat.  From 
the  very  beginning  it  has  not  made  a  single 
bit  of  difference  as  to  what  physicians  or 

55 


56  HOW  TO  EAT 

anybody  else  thought;  facts  count.  And 
no  matter  what  we  may  think  or  how  long 
we  have  thought  it,  facts  go  right  on  being 
facts  just  the  same. 

Sometimes,  even  after  twenty  years' 
experience,  about  once  in  two  or  three 
months — because  there  is  nothing  else  at 
hand  —  I  find  myself  eating  a  small  bit  of 
meat.  This  usually  happens  when  I  am 
on  a  lecture  tour.  But  if  I  eat  only  a 
small  slice  of  bacon  at  the  evening  meal  I 
dream  bad  dreams  and  the  next  morning 
feel  drowsy,  heavy,  and  sluggish.  Animal 
foods  as  well  as  eggs  and  commercial  sugar 
poison  all  those  born  of  nervous  parents. 
I  have  proved  the  truth  of  this  by  my  own 
case  and  by  several  years'  observation 
of  other  cases. 

Do  your  children  have  "night  terrors"? 
You  answer,  yes.  Well,  let  me  tell  you 
how  to  stop  these  horrors  in  the  little  ones. 
If  you  give  them  meat  —  and  remember 
you   should    never   give   them   pork — let 


RIGHT  AND  WRONG  DIET  57 

them  have  a  very  small  piece  at  noon, 
never  at  night.  And  they  should  never 
be  permitted  to  have  it  for  breakfast. 
Give  the  child  his  one  small  bit  of  meat  at 
noon.  For  the  evening  meal  give  him 
some  cereal  with  milk  or  cream,  but  no 
sugar.  Give  him  all  he  wants  of  this  spe- 
cial dish,  but  nothing  else  at  that  meal, 
and  you  will  find  his  "night  terrors''  and 
moaning  will  cease. 

I  look  back  on  most  of  the  nights  of  my 
childhood  with  horror,  for  until  I  became 
a  man  I  talked  in  my  sleep  and  had  the  most 
horrible  dreams.  I  used  also  to  get  up  in 
my  sleep  and  walk  about  the  room.  My 
parents  were  well  aware  of  the  fact  that  all 
of  their  eight  children  were  poor  sleepers, 
and  of  them  all  I  was  by  far  the  worst. 
And,  although  it  was  innocently  done, 
the  food  they  were  giving  us  was  poisoning 
us.  You  don't  need  to  think  that  in  order 
to  take  poison  you  must  have  strychnine 
or  arsenic.    No,   indeed  you  don't.    We 


58  HOW  TO  EAT 

were  fed  exactly  as  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  poor  little  ones  are  being  fed  now  as  this 
is  being  written.  We  were  fed  on  meat, 
eggs,  and  fats,  and  when  we  became  ill, 
friends  round  about  us  thought  they  were 
doing  something  real  kind  when  they  sent 
in  a  nice  piece  of  fried  rabbit  or  some  cele- 
brated golden  brown  fried  chicken.  But 
we  vomited  at  the  sight  of  the  food — 
which  was  really  our  salvation. 

I  have  two  boys  of  my  own.  The  elder, 
a  sturdy  chap  not  yet  ten  years  of  age,  has 
to  have  clothes  for  a  fourteen-year-old 
boy,  and  he  is  much  stronger  than  any 
boy  of  his  age  he  has  ever  met.  The 
younger  boy  is  now  seven  and  his  physi- 
cal development  is  wonderful  for  a  child 
of  that  age.  Now  these  boys  hardly  know 
what  an  egg  is.  They  never  eat  one.  As 
to  meat,  I  am  certain  that  since  they  were 
bom  they  have  not  eaten  it  on  an  average 
of  once  a  week.  They  have  eaten  a  little, 
but  you  will  admit  that  eating  meat  not 


RIGHT  AND  WRONG  DIET  59 

more  than  once  a  week,  and  often  going 
weeks  without  a  bit  of  it,  certainly  is  eating 
very  little.  There  have  been  times  when 
they  have  not  seen  meat  for  three  months. 
Now,  I  don't  eat  as  I  do  and  have  my 
children  eat  as  they  do  just  for  a  fad.  I 
think  nothing  is  more  stupid  and  silly  than 
for  people  to  do  certain  things  just  because 
somebody  else  does  them.  We  should  all 
have  good  sound  reasons  for  our  actions 
in  this  world.  We  should  all  try  our  very 
best  to  use  sound  common  sense.  That's 
why  I  say  that  people  who  are  the  offspring 
of  nervous  parents  should  not  eat  animal 
food  of  any  kind  after  they  are  twenty- 
one,  and  they  should  never  at  any  time 
eat  eggs.  It  would  be  far  better  for  them 
if  they  did  not  eat  commercial  sugar. 
But  I  do  admit  that  when  some  of  these 
people  get  well  by  dieting,  they  are  able 
to  eat  sparingly  of  all  these  things  and 
still  keep  well.  But  some  people  can  never 
eat  them  and  I  am  one  of  the  number. 


60  HOW  TO  EAT 

I  remember  one  summer  about  two 
years  ago  I  was  on  a  lecture  tour  for  a 
Chautauqua  Bureau,  and  it  seemed  that 
surely  I  got  into  the  very  worst  eating 
places  that  summer  that  I  ever  had  in  my 
Hfe.  For  three  or  four  days  I  ate  only 
eggs,  as  they  seemed  to  be  about  the  only 
food  I  could  get  besides  bread  and  butter. 
At  the  end  of  the  third  day  —  I  remember 
the  time"  very  well — when  night  came  I 
could  not  sleep,  and  just  as  when  I  had  one 
of  my  nervous  breakdowns,  that  old  feel- 
ing of  inexpressible  gloom  began  to  settle 
over  me.  I  knew  instantly  the  cause  of 
it,  because  twice  before  when  I  had  pur- 
posely experimented  with  eating  eggs  I 
had  had  similar  experiences.  I  immediately 
took  a  heavy  cathartic  and  after  having 
thoroughly  rid  myself  of  the  poison  I  again 
slept  well. 

But  I  am  not  alone  in  this  fight  against 
the  use  of  eggs  for  nervous  people.  John 
Burroughs  said  that  eggs  poisoned  him.  and 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG   DIET  61 

I  have  talked  with  men  of  great  wealth 
and  great  business  ability  who  have  reached 
the  top  by  their  own  efforts,  who  have 
told  me  that  eggs  poisoned  them. 

Now  I  have  found  that  for  these  nerv- 
ous people  animal  food  is  a  slow  poison. 
Sooner  or  later  it  will  do  its  work. 

And  just  here  I  wish  to  say  that  there 
are  some  people  who  seemingly  can  eat 
almost  anything  and  not  suffer  from  so 
doing.  Last  summer  I  talked  with  Count 
Ilya  Tolstoy,  son  of  Leo  Tolstoy,  the  cele- 
brated Russian  writer.  The  Count,  who 
is  also  a  lecturer,  told  me  that  he  was 
obliged  to  have  eggs  and  that  he  had  eaten 
them  all  his  life.  He  said  his  appetite  was 
never  satisfied  unless  he  ate  eggs.  He  is 
now  past  sixty,  and  apparently  is  strong 
and  rugged.  Now  eggs  no  doubt  are  good 
for  him.  But  right  here  is  where  infinite 
harm  can  be  done  to  nervous  people  like 
myself.  People  who  can  eat  everything— 
and    among    physicians   seemingly    there 


62  HOW  TO  EAT 

are  many  who  can  do  so  — will  say  to  these 
poor  sufferers: 

*'Why,  it's  all  nonsense  about  things 
hurting  you!  Eat  anything  you  want  and 
all  you  want  and  then  forget  about  it/* 

Physicians  have  said  that  to  me  and  dur- 
ing the  past  twenty  years  I  have  heard  them 
say  it  thousands  of  times  to  others. 

Personally  I  do  not  believe  in  Christian 
Science — physicians  of  the  Regular  school 
do  not  believe  in  it;  but  do  you  know  that 
when  a  physician  says  to  a  sufferer  from 
"nerves/'  "It's  all  nonsense  about  what 
you  eat  hurting  you;  eat  anything  you 
want  and  then  forget  about  it,"  that  physi- 
cian is  fully  endorsing  Christian  Science. 
He  is  telling  the  person  to  whom  he  is 
talking  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
physical  suffering.  Of  course,  such  a  phy- 
sician is  nothing  but  a  fool.  Yet  that's 
why  so  many  of  these  people  turn  to 
Christian  Science.  Yes,  that  is  exactly 
why  they  try  it.     It  bolsters  up  a  sufferer 


RIGHT  AND  WRONG  DIET  63 

for  a  time  just  as  contact  with  a  magnetic 
and  hopeful  personality  may  for  a  time 
bolster  one  up.  But  such  persons  almost 
always  go  back  to  the  sanitariums. 
** Nerves''  is  not  a  mental  disease;  that  is, 
the  seat  of  the  trouble  is  not  mental  but 
physical,  and  the  mental  phase  of  "nerves" 
is  only  a  symptom,  or  rather  one  of  the 
symptoms  of  the  disease. 

We  people  who  have  gone  down  into  the 
dark  valley  have  experienced  a  million, 
more  or  less,  different  kinds  of  feelings. 
I  fully  believe  one  half  of  the  American 
people  are  the  offspring  of  nervous  parents. 
This  means  that  there  are  fifty-five  million 
of  this  nervous  type  of  Americans.  This 
type  includes  people  all  the  way  from  the 
man  in  an  office  who  gets  angry  quickly, 
to  the  individual  who  is  in  a  state  of  com- 
plete collapse.  And  the  man  who  is 
afflicted  with  nothing  more  than  a  quick 
temper,  or  is  living  under  high  nervous 
tension,  is  liable  to  beget  children  who 


64  HOW  TO  EAT 

will  suffer  from  the  malady  in  a  far  worse 
degree  than  ever  he  will,  unless,  indeed, 
he  eats  only  the  things  he  should  eat  and 
observes  a  number  of  other  rules  besides 
the  two  I  have  already  laid  down. 

Now,  the  ideal  diet  for  nervous  people 
is  a  slightly  modified  vegetarian  diet. 
To  be  specific,  it  is  a  Lacto-vegetarian  diet 
minus  eggs.  There  are,  however,  two 
things  included  in  this  diet  that  I  would 
warn  one  in  the  beginning  to  eat  of  spar- 
ingly. These  are  bananas  and  cooked 
cabbage.  If  they  agree  with  you,  well 
and  good;  but  if  they  do  not,  let  them 
strictly  alone. 

Eat  all  kinds  of  vegetables,  both  fresh 
and  cooked.  Eat  all  kinds  of  fruits,  espe- 
cially fresh  fruits.  There  is  an  old  say- 
ing and  a  good  one,  **  An  apple  a  day  keeps 
the  doctor  away.'* 

There  are  a  thousand  ways  to  prepare 
vegetables  and  fruits  for  the  table,  and 
there  are  a  number  of  books  that  give 


RIGHT  AND  WRONG  DIET  65 

good  recipes.  If  a  nervous  individual  has 
never  yet  had  a  breakdown  I  believe  he  can 
safely  eat  most  of  the  vegetarian  dishes 
that  have  eggs  in  them,  but  it  would  be 
a  serious  mistake  to  select  the  special 
dishes  that  contain  eggs  and  live  on  those 
just  because  they  contain  eggs. 

I  believe,  too,  that  after  a  nervous  per- 
son is  restored  to  health,  if  he  strictly 
observes  the  rules  of  eating  sparingly  and 
of  chewing  all  food  to  a  cream,  he  may 
safely  try  out  such  courses  as  are  found  in 
Bardsley's  Recipes  for  Food  Reformers  or 
Broadbenfs  Forty  Vegetarian  Dinners, 

It  may  seem  odd,  but  there  are  people 
who  for  some  reason  or  other  lack  the 
instinct,  or  whatever  is  needed,  to  know 
that  a  certain  thing  they  eat  hurts  them. 
I  have  had  men  and  women  sit  in  my 
office  and  say  with  the  utmost  sincerity 
that  they  were  certain  that  it  wasn^t  any- 
thing they  ate  that  hurt  them  because 
they  never  had  any  pain  in  the  abdomen. 

5 


66  HOW  TO  EAT 

Sometimes  these  people  were  in  a  dreadful 
state  of  nervous  breakdown.  So  you  see 
the  danger  that  lies  here.  If  you  know, 
you  can  always  tell  what  special  thing 
disagrees  with  you.  For  example,  I  know 
eggs  disagree  with  me,  and  like  John 
Burroughs  and  many  others,  I  know  when 
they  harm  me.  Therefore,  after  you  have 
recovered  you  might  try  being  your  own 
physician.  But  if  you  are  not  sure  as  to 
what  disagrees  with  you,  you  would  much 
better  stick  to  a  vegetarian  diet  and  go 
without  eggs  the  remainder  of  your  days. 
Commercial  sugar  also  is  the  cause  of 
many  breakdowns  among  the  people  of 
this  country.  And  is  it  not  strange  how 
these  poor  suffering  people  crave  sweets  — 
the  very  thing  they  should  not  have. 
They  will  argue  with  themselves — and 
some  physicians  will  agree  with  them  — 
that  they  should  go  right  on  eating  candy 
because  they  want  it.  But,  as  I  have 
already  said,  there  is  just  as  much  sense  in 


RIGHT  AND  WRONG  DIET  67 

saying  a  man  should  have  wliiskey  because 
he  craves  it  or  that  a  young  man  should 
have  tobacco  because  he  craves  it,  as  to 
say  that  any  one  should  have  candy 
because  he  craves  it.  There  is  absolutely 
no  sense  in  such  an  argument.  If  you  are 
suffering  from  a  nervous  breakdown,  for 
sixty  days  quit  eating  candy  and  every- 
thing sweet  except  honey,  and  follow  the 
other  rules  I  have  already  laid  down.  It 
may  be  that  you  will  have  to  stick  to  this 
diet  for  three  months.  But  try  it.  That 
is  exactly  what  cured  all  my  bodily  ills 
and  brought  my  soul  out  of  the  dark  and 
gloomy  night  after  everything  else  had 
failed.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  this  diet 
alone  cured  me,  but  I  do  say  it  was  the 
biggest  factor  in  the  cure.  There  are, 
however,  some  other  things  that  it  would 
be  worse  than  folly  to  ignore.  This  I 
shall  come  to  later.  But  just  here  I  want 
to  have  it  understood  that  this  thing  of 
eating  —  how  you  eat,  and  how  much  you 


68  HOW/IrO  EAT 


eat,  and  wha^^ou  eat  —  is  of  transcendent 
importap^e  in  the  cure. 

Of^ course,  under  some  circumstances 
connected  with  cases  of  breakdown,  noth- 
ing but  the  good  judgment  of  friends  will 
avail.  For  example,  the  question  of  how 
much  one  shall  eat  is  something  that  not 
all  the  books  in  the  world  nor  all  the 
physicians  in  the  world  can  determine. 
I  say,  always  quit  while  you  want  a  little 
more.    I  cannot  say  more  or  less  than  that. 

So  many  have  written  me  recently  ask- 
ing just  what  I  eat,  that  it  may  be  a  help 
to  some  of  them  if  I  set  down  here  just 
what  I  ate  today.  I  ate  no  breakfast  at 
all.  Sometimes  I  go  for  weeks  without 
eating  breakfast.  This  is  especially  apt 
to  be  the  case  if  I  am  engaged  in  writing 
a  magazine  article  or  a  book.  I  find  my 
brain  is  much  clearer  and  that  I  can  work 
much  better  when  I  eat  no  breakfast.  But 
I  do  drink  one  or  two  cups  of  very  weak 
tea.    I  use  just  enough  tea  to  color  the 


RIGHT  AND  WRONG  DIET         69 

water.  Now  I  do  not  advise  everybody 
to  go  without  breakfast.  Some  people 
tell  me  that  they  have  a  headache  unless 
they  eat  something.  And  some  writers 
say  that  if  they  do  not  eat  a  little  break- 
fast they  cannot  write  so  well.  Thus  you 
see  where  the  question  of  common  sense 
and  using  your  own  judgment  comes  in. 
There  are  always  a  few  things  you  will 
have  to  decide  for  yourselves.  At  noon  I 
ate  about  two  handfuls  of  corn  flakes 
with  milk  and  cream  but  no  sugar,  finish- 
ing with  about  four  ounces  of  bread  pud- 
ding that  had  a  little  brown  sugar  in  it. 
Now,  in  mid-afternoon,  as  I  write  this,  I  am 
not  hungry.  Tonight  I  shall  eat  another 
dish  of  corn  flakes  and  some  buttered 
toast  and  three  or  perhaps  four  good-sized 
apples,  I  usually  eat  three  or  four  apples 
a  day.  If  I  want  a  piece  of  pie  for  lunch, 
I  eat  it,  but  I  eat  nothing  else. 

I  live  on  the  plainest  of  plain  foods. 
Apples  used  to  create  a  lot  of  gas  in  my 


70  HOW  TO  EAT 

stomach,  but  now  they  do  not  because  I 
chew  them  to  a  cream.  Milk  used  to  make 
me  constipated,  but  it  does  not  when  I 
chew  the  cereal  with  it  carefully  and  eat  a 
number  of  apples. 

Most  nervous  people  are  constipated. 
But  apples  are  really  the  salvation  of  ner- 
vous people.  If  you  are  constipated,  drink, 
or  rather,  sip,  a  glass  of  hot  water  half  an 
hour  before  breakfast,  then  eat  nothing 
for  breakfast  but  apples;  eat  two  big  ones 
and  chew  them  slowly  to  a  cream.  Go 
to  stool  regularly  every  morning.  This 
habit   is   half  the   cure   of   constipation. 

Apples,  of  all  things  I  know,  are  the 
finest  things  for  the  liver.  If  you  take  a 
patient  ill  from  chronic  indigestion,  whose 
stools  are  clay  colored,  ana  put  him  on  a 
diet  of  apples,  if  he  chews  properly,  in  less 
than  twenty-four  hours  the  stools  will  be 
of  the  regulation  dark  brown  color,  as  they 
should  be  when  the  liver  is  working  in  a 
normal,    healthful    manner.    And    eating 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG   DIET  71 

apples  will  work  in  exactly  the  same  way 
with  children  as  with  adults. 

Apples,  apples,  apples!  Eat  them  no 
matter  what  the  price.  You  remember 
how  good  Adam  found  the  apple— or  at 
least  we  presume  it  was  an  apple  that  he 
found  so  good — and  I  can  think  of  no  other 
single  thing  that  would  tempt  a  man  to 
make  all  the  trouble  he  did.  If  he  had  to 
sin,  then  Fm  for  Adam  every  time,  for  I 
think  had  I  been  in  his  place  and  Eve  had 
offered  me  a  big  juicy  red  apple,  I  should 
have  taken  it  and  eaten  it.  I  don't  know 
but  that  I  might  even  have  eaten  it  with- 
out the  invitation.  I  think  that  Adam's 
great  mistake  was  not  so  much  in  eating 
the  apple  as  in  trying  to  lay  the  blame  on 
the  woman.  Nobody  should  ever  apolo- 
gize for  having  eaten  an  apple. 

Now,  generally  speaking,  there  is  one 
thing  a  nervous  parent— or  any  other 
kind  of  parent  for  that  matter  — should 
never  say  to  a  child.    Never  tell  him  he 


72  HOW  TO  EAT 

is  nervous.  If  we  realize  that  our  children 
are  the  offspring  of  nervous  parents,  it  is, 
as  I  have  already  suggested,  much  better 
for  all  concerned,  for  we  cannot  avoid  a 
danger  unless  we  know  what  or  where  the 
danger  is.  When  we  know  the  child  is 
nervous  we  should  plan  carefully,  leaving 
out  of  his  diet  all  pastries  and  rich  greasy 
foods,  and  keep  him  largely  on  a  vegetarian 
diet.  But,  as  I  have  already  suggested, 
we  do  not  need  to  diet  a  nervous  child  as 
strictly  as  we  do  a  nervous  adult  where 
infinite  harm  has  already  been  done.  Give 
the  nervous  child  meat  only  a  part  of  the 
time,  and  if  he  goes  without  eggs  it  will  be 
all  the  better  for  him.  I  wish  from  the 
bottom  of  my  heart  that  I  had  never 
tasted  an  egg! 

What  a  fine  thing  it  would  be  if  we  so 
trained  our  children  that  they  would  never 
suffer  from  '* nerves"!  And  usually  it 
could  be  done.  The  beUef  that  because 
nervous  parents  have  broken  down  their 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG   DIET  73 

children  sooner  or  later  must  break  down, 
is  our  greatest  curse.  But  such  a  belief  is 
absurd,  for  if  dieting,  outdoor  exercise, 
and  a  few  other  simple  rules  are  observed, 
there  is  no  danger  that  it  will  happen.  To 
be  sure,  these  rules  must  be  definitely- 
understood  and  strictly  adhered  to. 

If  we  treat  this  misfortune  in  the  manner 
I  shall  mention  later,  we  can  make  our  lives 
more  successful  and  infinitely  happier  than 
the  lives  of  those  who  have  never  learned 
self-control.  For  instance,  I  am  far 
healthier  than  men  all  around  me  who 
seem  to  be  able  to  eat  three  Christmas 
dinners  each  day.  They  sit  at  the  table 
and  boast  about  being  "good  feeders/' 
then  later  they  come  to  me  for  pills,  saying, 
"There  is  nothing  the  matter  with  me, 
doctor,  but  I  thought  I  had  better  take  a 
little  medicine  so  I  won't  get  ill."  But 
they  don't  fool  me.  I  know  exactly  what 
is  the  matter  with  them.  They  are  so 
full  of  pork  they  can't  think.    To  tell  the 


74  HOW  TO  EAT 

truth,  we  people  who  have  suffered  from 
a  nervous  breakdown  or  some  illness  akin 
to  it,  and  have  learned  that  we  must  eat 
right  or  die,  are  of  all  people  the  most 
fortunate. 

Every  now  and  then  I  hear  some  good 
old  sister,  with  a  face  like  a  full  moon  and 
jowls  like  a  bloodhound,  say,  as  she  finishes 
her  third  piece  of  mince  pie,  —  her  waist 
line  having  extended  accordingly,  — 
"  Is  n't  it  too  bad  about  poor  brother  Jones ! 
He  looks  so  terribly  thin!  They  say  he 
has  fallen  away  from  one  hundred  and 
sixty  pounds  to  only  a  himdred  and  fifty. 
And  they  do  say  he  can't  eat  meat  and 
eggs  at  all!    The  poor  man!'* 

But  the  real  facts  of  the  case  are  that 
brother  Jones  is  able  to  walk  ten  miles  any 
day,  and  the  possibiUty  is  that  in  the  not 
distant  future  he  will  read  in  his  morning 
paper  that  sister  Sue  Portly  has  been  oper- 
ated on  for  gall  stones  and  the  number 
reported    is    almost    unbelievable,    about 


RIGHT  AND  WRONG   DIET  75 

three  hundred,  in  fact.  And  so,  all  the  time 
sister  Portly  was  feeling  sorry  for  lithe, 
energetic  brother  Jones,  she  was  a  walk- 
ing stone  quarry,  as  it  were,  and  yet 
didn't  know  it. 

So  don't  worry  because  you  have  to  diet 
or  because  after  reading  these  lines  you 
determine  that  you  must  begin  to  diet. 
For,  whoever  you  are,  and  wherever  you 
may  be,  you  belong  to  a  most  fortunate  class 
of  people. 

And  now  I  wish  to  say  some  things  about 
what  nervous  people  should  do  besides 
dieting,  and  especially  do  I  wish  to  say 
these  things  to  those  now  suffering  from  a 
nervous  breakdown.  Much  of  it  at  least 
will  apply  to  children  of  nervous  parentage. 
You  will  observe  as  you  go  along  that  I 
keep  mentioning  "these  children."  I  do 
so  always  with  the  thought  in  mind  that 
there  is  absolutely  no  need  for  them  ever  to 
break  down  if  these  common  sense  rules 
are  followed.     I  take  it  that  not  any  one 


76  HOW  TO  EAT 

of  us  or  a  number  of  us,  but  that  all  of  us 
love  our  children  more  than  we  love  our- 
selves. Admitting  the  truth  of  this,  then 
we  should  all  be  interested  in  this  system 
for  them  as  well  as  for  ourselves,  for  as 
their  nerves  are  so  shall  their  success  be. 


IV.    VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE 
AND  EXERCISE 


Better  to  hunt  in  fields  for  health 

unbought. 
The  wise  for  cure  on  exercise  depend; 
God  never  made  his  work  for  man  to 

mend." 

— Dryden 


IV.    VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE 
AND  EXERCISE 

People  in  this  country  are  now  beginning 
to  get  away  from  the  idea  that  a  man  or 
woman  who  is  past  sixty  is  getting  "old." 
When  the  Rev.  John  Wesley,  the  itinerant 
preacher  and  author,  was  eighty-eight  years 
old — please  note  the  eighty-eight  —  he 
walked  six  miles  to  keep  a  preaching 
appointment.  When  asked  if  the  walk 
tired  him,  he  laughed  and  said:  **  Why,  no! 
Not  at  all!  The  only  difference  I  can  see 
in  my  endurance  now  and  when  I  was 
twenty  is  that  I  cannot  run  quite  so  fast." 

I  know  there  are  calamity-howlers  who 
say:  "Oh,  well,  some  people  are  born  to 
success  and  long  life  and  some  are  not!" 
The  individual  who  permits  himself  to  get 
into  that  frame  of  mind  is  doomed  and 

79 


80  HOW  TO  EAT 

no  one  can  help  him.  Such  reasoning  is 
of  course  all  nonsense.  John  Wesley  was 
always  a  spare  eater.  Yet  he  lived  an 
active  outdoor  life,  often  traveling  forty 
and  even  sixty  miles  a  day  on  horseback. 
He  never  failed  to  keep  an  appointment  on 
account  of  the  weather.  And  he  was  a 
tireless  worker,  often  preaching  four  and 
five  times  a  day.  At  the  same  time  he 
read  and  wrote  every  spare  moment,  turn- 
ing out  a  large  amount  of  literary  work. 
Dr.  Eliot,  ex-President  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, a  constant  writer  and  speaker,  and 
among  the  greatest  of  American  educators 
— now  nearer  90  than  80  years  of  age — is 
also  a  moderate  eater.  He  says,  *'I  have 
always  eaten  moderately  of  simple  food  in 
great  variety.  This  practice  is  probably 
the  result,  first,  of  a  natural  tendency,  and 
then  of  confirmed  habit  and  much  expe- 
rience under  varying  conditions  of  work  and 
play.  From  much  observation  of  eating 
habits  of  other  people,  both  the  young  and 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR   LIFE  81 

the  mature,  I  am  convinced  that  modera- 
tion, simpUcity,  and  variety  in  eating  are 
more  important  than  any  other  bodily 
habit  towards  maintaining  good  health, 
power  of  work,  and,  barring  accidents, 
attaining  to  enjoyable  old  age." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  what  that  eminent 
lawyer,  legislator,  and  orator,  Chauncey  M. 
Depew,  had  to  say  on  the  occasion  of  his 
eighty-seventh  birthday  about  a  simple 
diet  and  reaching  the  century  mark.  "The 
true  philosophy  of  life  is  this:  The  more 
you  like  a  thing  the  more  reason  there  is 
for  giving  it  up  if  you  find  it  is  not  good  for 
you.  If  you  treat  nature  properly,  nature 
will  adjust  herself  to  you. 

"My  diet  is  very  simple.  I  have  the 
same  breakfast  every  day  in  the  year,  and 
it  consists  of  an  orange,  one  four-minute 
egg,  one  half  of  a  com  muffin,  and  a  cup  of 
coflfee  which  is  mainly  hot  milk.  I  have 
this  at  half  past  eight.  My  hour  of  rising 
is  seven  every  morning. 

6 


82  '      HOW  TO  EAT 

'For  luncheon  I  partake  principally  of 
vegetables,  with  no  meat,  and  a  glass  of 
water.  This  is  at  one  o*clock.  At  dinner 
I  skip  most  of  the  courses  and  enjoy  small 
portions  of  vegetables,  fish,  and  fowl.  I 
never  eat  between  meals  and  consume  now 
less  than  half  I  did  at  fifty. 

The  vigor  and  long  life  of  Bishop  Fallows 
of  Chicago  are  mainly  due  to  his  living  and 
mental  habits  and  to  his  simple  diet.  He 
is  well  over  85  years  of  age,  but  few  men  of 
three-score  years  can  do  as  much  work,  the 
year  round.  There  are  two  or  three  sermons 
and  several  public  addresses  each  week,  and 
the  work  of  a  large  parish  —  from  marriages 
and  christenings  to  funerals  and  parish  visit- 
ings — which  is  never  slighted.  An  active 
Grand  Army  man  and  Civil  War  veteran, 
he  is  asked  to  address  countless  military  and 
patriotic  gatherings,  and  his  energy  seems 
as  tireless  as  his  spirit  is  willing.  His 
ability  to  meet  these  demands  can  be  traced 
back  to  simple  living  and  simple  eating. 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE  83 

The  Bishop  is  temperate  in  all  things, 
and  refuses  to  worry.  He  neither  drinks 
nor  smokes. 

In  regard  to  his  diet  he  says,  **I  eat 
very  little  meat,  but  take  plenty  of  fruit, 
cereals  and  vegetables.  I  take  regularly 
before  breakfast  a  cup  of  hot  grape  juice. 
I  use  it  frequently  at  other  times.  I  take 
buttermilk  daily.''  Night  and  morning  he 
takes  simple  physical  exercises,  and  always 
walks  at  least  a  couple  of  miles  each  day. 

The  Bishop's  ancestors  were  long-lived. 
His  great  grandfather  lived  to  be  96;  his 
grandfather,  91;  his  eldest  brother,  93. 
His  father's  death  from  a  fall  occurred  at 
the  age  of  81.  He  has  a  brother  who  is  92. 
This  in  itself  is  evidence  that  he  comes  of 
a  family  in  which  right  living — which  means 
simple  living — has  prevailed  until  its  effects 
have  shown  in  each  succeeding  generation. 

The  world-renowned  American  inventor, 
Thomas  A.  Edison,  now  in  his  75th  year, 
has  to-day  a  mind  as  brilliant  and  ingenious. 


84  HOW  TO  EAT 

and  a  skill  as  remarkable  for  inventing 
things  that  are  of  practical  use,  as  when  at 
21  he  invented  his  automatic  repeater  which 
did  so  much  for  telegraphy.  And  Edison 
is  another  spare  eater.  What  he  ate  at  the 
three  meals  of  the  day  on  which  he  wrote 
the  following  letter,  is  characteristic  of  the 
small  amount  he  eats  every  day  in  the  year. 

And  you  will  learn  that  this  is  true  of 
every  man  or  woman  who  has  lived  long 
and  is  still  doing  active  brain  work.  And 
so,  once  for  all,  let  us  think  right  about 
this  matter.  We  get  out  of  ourselves  just 
about  what  we  put  into  ourselves  or  do  for 
ourselves  in  the  way  of  food  and  exercise. 

Most  people  do  not  take  enough  sys- 
tematic outdoor  exercise.  And  exercise, 
I  would  have  you  understand,  is  another 
essential  in  the  cure  of  one  who  has 
"nerves.''  But  I  am  quite  sure  that  a 
lot  of  bad  advice  has  been  given  women 
sufferers  along  this  line.  I  find  that  as 
a  rule,  women  make  better  progress,  at 


Maroh  2,    1921. 


Dr.   Thomas  Clark  Hinkl« 
Cawker  City .Kansas. 

Dear  Sir: 

Your  letter  of  February  E5th  waa 
received.  My  food  for  the  one  day  on  which 
your  letter  wag   received,   was  as  follows: 

BREAJCgAST 

Gup  coffee   1/2  milk,    1/2 

coffee. 

Two  pieces   toast,   2^"  x  4", 

1/4  •♦   thick. 

Another  piece  toast  with 

two  small  sardines  oq  it. 

MIDDAX  MEAL 

Glass  milk. 

Two  plecea  of  dry  toast. 

gVEHIHG  MEAL 

Two  glasses  milk. 

Three  pieces  very  thin  dry 

toast* 

Small  piece  steak,   1^"  wide, 
>..—  '  L^  \9€lh9  3/8"  thick,   5"  long. 

OJlKjhT  IW*«»  sisll  haked  potato! 

One  pleod  nut  chocolate. 


(Ig^  diy^^*^^^** 


2^  joC-H-^-i^       >o„,s^„.,. 


86  HOW  TO  EAT 

least  at  first,  with  complete  rest  or  as 
much  rest  as  they  can  possibly  get.  I 
have  seen  great  harm  come  from  tell- 
ing a  woman  afflicted  with  "The  Myster- 
ious Disease"  —  as  it  is  often  called  —  to 
take  long  walks.  I  am  always  extremely 
careful  about  telling  such  a  woman  to 
indulge  in  vigorous  exercise.  Some 
women,  of  course,  are  much  stronger  than 
others.  My  advice  to  a  woman  is  to  walk 
in  the  open  air  unless  she  is  so  ill  she  can- 
not walk  at  all  without  becoming  very 
weak.  And  here  again  each  person  must 
use  common  sense  and  decide  the  matter 
herself.  But  no  person  with  a  nervous 
breakdown  should  ever  work  at  any  task 
or  take  any  kind  of  exercise  to  the  point 
of  exhaustion. 

I  well  remember  a  man  who  came  to  me 
some  years  ago  suffering  from  this  malady. 
He  had  been  trying  to  get  well  by  doing 
heavy  stunts  in  a  gymnasium.  He  was 
very  muscular,  in  fact  he  was  an  athlete, 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE  87 

and  was  still  under  twenty-five  years  of 
age.  His  cheeks  were  ruddy,  and  to  the 
ordinary  observer  he  appeared  to  be  in 
the  pink  of  condition.  But  he  had  that 
peculiar  expression  of  the  eyes  that  flashed 
his  story  to  me  as  plainly  as  if  blazoned 
forth  by  the  letters  of  an  electric  sign.  I 
told  him  at  once  that  he  could  never  hope 
to  cure  his  nerves  by  such  violent 
exercises. 

And  right  here  let  me  advise  men  in 
this  condition  not  to  run.  I  receive  many 
letters  of  inquiry  from  young  men  with 
broken-down  nerves  who  tell  me  they  are 
taking  long  walks  and  finishing  with  a 
run.  To  all  such  I  say:  Do  not  run. 
I  know  all  about  it  for  I  have  tried  it.  I 
was  on  my  university  football  team.  And 
all  my  life  I  have  been  fond  of  athletics. 
I  am  still  fond  of  this  kind  of  life  and 
always  expect  to  be,  but  exercise  is  fre- 
quently overdone  by  nervous  people. 
Usually,  the  physically  strong  man  who 


88  HOW  TO  EAT 

breaks  down  with  " nerves''  thinks  at  once 
of  physical  training.  But  strange  as  it 
may  seem,  you  can  make  such  a  man's 
muscles  as  hard  as  iron  but  that  alone  will 
not  cure  him.  And  it  is  true  that  many 
people  in  this  condition  do  not  seem  nerv- 
ous for  they  are  not  at  all  shaky,  as  some 
think  an  individual  should  be  if  he  is  the 
victim  of  a  nervous  breakdown. 

I  well  remember  that  one  day  when  at 
my  worst  I  could  not  work  nor  concentrate 
my  mind  on  anything.  I  chanced  to  be 
in  Topeka,  Kansas,  and  passed  a  shooting 
gallery.  I  was  a  good  rifle  shot  and  I 
had  been  taking  long  walks  and  shooting 
Kansas  jack  rabbits.  I  went  in,  picked  up 
one  of  the  rifles,  and  started  firing  at  the 
biggest  target.  I  rang  the  bell  twice  on 
that  target  in  succession,  and  then  aimed 
at  the  finest  target  there  and  rang  the 
bell  twice  in  succession  on  that.  The  pro- 
prietor was  very  much  surprised,  saying 
it    was    remarkably    good    shooting;  and 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE  89 

yet  I  was  down  and  out  with  ''nerves." 
I  have  seen  many  athletes  who,  to  the 
untrained  observer,  looked  well,  but  who 
in  reality  were  nervous  wrecks.  Outdoor 
exercise  alone  will  not  cure  such  people, 
or  if  seemingly  it  does — and  this  is  impor- 
tant—  sooner  or  later  the  individual  is 
sure  to  go  down  again.  You  have  first 
to  remove  the  cause,  and  that  is  largely 
wrong  diet.  Now  of  course  it  is  only 
reasonable  to  say  that  if  such  an  individ- 
ual does  not  get  out  of  doors  at  all  he 
cannot  get  well. 

That  is  one  trouble  with  many  of  our 
women  today.  They  will  go  on  a  diet 
and  stick  to  it,  but  they  will  not  get  out  of 
doors.  If  they  do  go  out,  they  ride  a  little 
distance  in  a  street  car  or  in  an  automobile 
to  do  some  shopping.  Or  they  go  to  a 
store  and  spend  a  good  deal  of  time  there  — 
indoors,  mind  you  — and  then  are  whirled 
home  again.  Some  of  them  seem  to  think 
that  is   taking   outdoor  exercise,   but   of 


90  HOW  TO   EAT 

course  it  is  not.  So  many  times  they 
have  said  to  me,  ''Why,  I  do  get  out!'' 
Yes,  they  do  get  out,  but  they  immedi- 
ately go  indoors  again. 

The  nervous  individual,  unless  the  col- 
lapse is  so  severe  that  the  first  few  weeks 
must  be  spent  in  bed,  should  get  out  of 
doors  at  least  three  or  four  hours  a  day, 
every  day  in  the  week.  This  is  a  general 
rule  that  should  be  observed  by  everyone. 
It  takes  genuine  courage,  I  know,  for  a 
man  or  woman  to  spend  this  much  time 
out  of  doors.  And  I  know  that  those  who 
are  compelled  to  work  for  a  living  cannot 
take  three  hours  all  at  one  time.  But 
labor  conditions  in  this  country  are  such 
that  I  am  sure  the  vast  majority  of  our 
people  could  spend  this  much  time  out- 
doors in  wholesome  recreation  if  they 
would  make  up  their  mind  to  do  so. 

And  remember  this:  After  the  nervous 
person  is  cured  he  should  never  let  any- 
thing prevent  him  from  continuing  such 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE  91 

outdoor  exercise.  I  am  constantly  try- 
ing to  make  this  point  —  when  you  get 
well  you  should  stay  well.  One  break- 
down is  bad  enough;  don't  have  another. 
And  you  will  not  have  another  if  you  will 
change  the  habits  of  a  lifetime  as  you  are 
advised  to  do. 

Among  farmers  there  are  many,  the 
offspring  of  nervous  parents  with  bad  eat- 
ing habits,  who  suffer  from  nervous  break- 
downs. So  you  see  exercise  out  of  doors 
alone  will  not  cure  such  cases.  Some- 
times a  farmer  will  tell  me  he  fears  to  give 
up  eating  meat  because  he  will  grow  weak 
as  a  result.  But  just  here  I  wish  to  call 
your  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  are 
nations  that  have  for  ages  lived  on  this 
lacto-vegetarian  diet.  I  myself  have  not 
eaten  meat  or  eggs  for  ten  years.  At 
least  I  have  not  eaten  them  except  the 
few  times  mentioned.  And  every  time 
I  did  break  the  rule  I  was  harmed  far 
more  than  I  was  benefited.     I  am  very 


92  HOW  TO  EAT 

sure  the  farmer  who  chooses  this  lacto- 
vegetarian  diet  will  thrive  on  it. 

Members  of  our  profession  discovered 
not  very  long  ago  that  at  an  advanced 
age  the  peasants  of  Bulgaria  are  a  won- 
derfully preserved  people  both  mentally 
and  physically.  FooHshly  a  great  num- 
ber of  the  profession  immediately  jumped 
to  the  conclusion  that  buttermilk  alone 
did  the  miracle  for  these  people.  The 
drinking  of  buttermilk  became  such  a  fad 
that  some  of  the  largest  of  our  physicians' 
supply  houses  began  and  are  still  making 
*' buttermilk  tablets."  And  physicians, 
many  of  them,  are  credulous  enough  to 
prescribe  them.  They  might  just  as 
well  prescribe  chalk.  While  buttermilk 
tablets  are  harmless,  they  are  of  no  benefit 
whatever.  How  easily  fooled  people  — 
physicians  included  —  may  be!  Bulgar- 
ian peasants  are  strong  and  rugged  and 
live  to  a  great  age  not  because  they  drink 
buttermilk,  but  because  they  live  on  milk 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE  93 

and  fruits  and  vegetables  and  stay  out  of 
doors.  Buttermilk  is  a  good  healthful 
drink,  but  it  is  only  a  minor  reason  for 
the  health  and  strength  of  the  Bulgarian 
peasant.  Now,  really,  could  you  think  of 
anything  more  absurd  than  to  prescribe 
buttermilk  or  buttermilk  tablets  as  the 
fountain  of  youth  when  the  patient  is 
breaking  all  the  laws  of  health,  as  most  but- 
termilk laymen  and  physicians  are  doing? 
It  seems  almost  impossible  that  people — 
physicians  in  particular  —  should  for  a 
moment  believe  such  things.  But  they 
do.  Bamum  said  there  was  a  "sucker" 
bom  every  minute,  and  this  certainly 
seems  to  be  true. 

No,  there  is  no  royal  road  to  health. 
The  buttermilk-tablet  route  will  not  take 
you  there.  If  you  will  live  out  of  doors 
as  Bulgarian  peasants  do,  and  if  you  will 
eat  as  they  do,  —  as  man  is  expected  to 
eat,  —  you  will  live  just  as  long  as  they  do, 
and  you  will  get  a  great  deal  more  out  of 


94  HOW  TO  EAT 

life  and  be  much  more  helpful  to  others. 
When  the  '*time"  comes  round  for  your 
next  buttermilk  tablet,  do  not  take  it. 
Instead,  do  as  those  peasants  do — leave 
off  eating  meat  and  take  a  two-hour  walk 
in  the  sunshine.  Then  when  nine  o^clock 
comes,  like  the  Bulgarian,  go  to  bed  and 
stay  there  until  morning. 

If  the  person  afflicted  with  ** nerves'* 
expects  to  get  well  and  stay  well,  he  must 
go  to  bed  at  an  early  hour  and  get  eight 
or  nine  hours  of  sleep  not  only  some  nights 
but  every  night  in  the  week.  When  one 
begins  dieting  and  taking  outdoor  exer- 
cise he  should  go  to  bed  regularly  at  an 
early  hour  even  though  he  has  not  been 
sleeping  well.  No  matter  how  many  sleep- 
less nights  he  has  experienced  before  begin- 
ning this  regime,  he  should  retire  early 
just  the  same,  because,  sooner  or  later, 
sleep  will  come  and  the  relaxed  body  is 
resting  even  if  the  individual  does  not 
sleep.    Now  I  have  been  through  all  this 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE  95 

lying  awake  at  night,  so  I  know  from 
experience  that  it  is  best  to  go  to  bed  early 
and  at  a  regular  hour.  If  you  can,  you 
should  sleep  nine  hours.  Nervous  people 
need  more  sleep  than  others.  Sleep  is  a 
better  restorer  of  nerves  than  anything 
else  we  can  try.  I  do  not  believe  that 
ten  or  even  eleven  hours'  sleep  would  be 
harmful  to  a  nervous  adult,  because  very 
often  I  have  seen  such  a  person  benefited 
by  it. 

Children  should  have  all  the  sleep  they 
want  up  to  ten  or  twelve  hours.  But  after 
a  child  has  wakened  in  the  morning  he 
should  be  permitted  to  get  up.  It  is  not 
good  for  him  to  lie  in  bed  after  he  wishes 
to  rise,  for  nature  is  calling  him  to  get  up 
and  exercise. 

The  nervous  individual  not  only  should 
exercise  systematically  out  of  doors  but 
he  should  play  some  game.  You  remem- 
ber when  we  were  children  how  much  we 
loved  to  play?    Well,  to  give  up  play  when 


96  HOW  TO  EAT 

we  grow  up  is  all  nonsense.  And  just 
because  people  quit  playing  is  the  reason 
they  have  wrinkles  and  frowns.  Did  you 
ever  notice  how  often  people  laugh  when 
at  play?  There  is  something  about  play 
that  compels  one  to  laugh.  And  what  all 
people  need,  nervous  people  and  others  as 
well,  is  to  get  into  the  habit  of  laughing 
more. 

And  it  is  not  hard  to  find  something  to 
play.  I  like  to  play  at  basket  ball  with 
a  child,  and  I  can  enjoy  tossing  a  ball  for 
an  hour  if  the  child  will  stick  to  the  game 
that  long.  Playing  basket  ball  in  the  open 
air  on  a  sunshiny  day  is  one  of  the 
very  finest  exercises  in  the  world. 

If  you  are  suffering  from  "nerves''  and 
are  able  to  be  out  of  doors  at  all,  —  I  mean 
if  you  are  well  enough  to  be  out,  and  at 
least  nine  out  of  ten  sufferers  are, —  get  a 
basket  ball  and  get  some  one  to  play  with 
you.  If  at  first  you  are  poor  at  catching 
the  ball  you  will  with  practice  improve. 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE         97 

Gradually  toss  the  ball  a  little  higher  and 
a  little  higher  until  you  have  difficulty  in 
catching  it.  Any  woman  or  girl  can  stand 
this  sort  of  open  air  exercise.  If  the 
weather  is  cold,  no  matter;  wrap  up  and 
play  anyway.  But  enter  into  the  game 
with  spirit.  Playing  the  regular  game  of 
basket  ball  is  too  violent  exercise  for  the 
nervous  person.  The  victim  of  *' nerves" 
should  always  keep  in  mind  that  it  is  mild 
outdoor  exercise  that  will  do  him  good. 

Tennis  is  too  violent  an  exercise  for 
people  who  have  had  nervous  trouble. 
Anyway,  there  is  no  use  in  one's  doing 
anything  that  will  make  his  heart  beat 
like  a  trip-hammer.  A  women  can  toss 
a  basket  ball  and  laugh  and  get  rosy 
cheeks  and  grow  younger  and  prettier 
as  easily  as  when  playing  tennis. 

Golf  is  also  good  exercise,  but  a  large 
number  of  people  who  work  for  a  living 
and  suffer  from  "nerves"  would  have 
little  chance  for  exercise  if  golf  were  all 

7 


98  HOW  TO  EAT 

that  could  be  offered  them.  Furthermore 
golf  is  practically  only  a  summer  game, 
and  an  individual  belonging  to  the  pre- 
nervous  class  needs  outdoor  exercise  every 
day  in  the  year.  But  golf  is  excellent 
exercise,  and  there  is  nothing  better  if  one 
has  the  time  to  give  to  it  and  has  access 
to  links. 

Bicycling  is  splendid  exercise  for  nervous 
people,  but  automobiles  are  so  numerous 
that  it  is  now  considered  almost  dangerous 
to  ride  a  wheel  on  any  of  our  main  traveled 
roads. 

Mountain  climbing,  I  believe,  is  not  to 
be  recommended  for  most  people  suffer- 
ing from  '* nerves.''  I  have  known  such 
people  to  go  to  Colorado  and  spend  some 
time  climbing  mountains,  and  then  come 
back  much  worse  than  when  they  went 
away.  My  advice  to  the  nervous  person 
who  goes  to  the  mountains  is  to  be  out  of 
doors  all  the  time  he  can,  but  to  take 
things  easy.    It  would  be  better  for  such 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE  99 

a  person  to  walk  about  slowly  on  the  level 
ground  through  some  of  the  towns  or  along 
the  foothills. 

Let  leisure  be  your  watchword  in  a  hill 
country.  I  know  I  injured  my  nerves 
out  in  Colorado  one  summer  because  I 
was  ill  advised.  Mountain  air  is  good 
for  you,  but  the  mountains  will  do  you 
more  good  if  you  simply  look  at  them. 
If  you  think  you  must  go  to  the  top,  take 
a  burro.  You  will  find  that  the  burro  will 
give  you  a  lesson  in  how  to  do  things  in 
a  leisurely  way.  Do  not  get  out  of 
patience  with  him  and  whip  him.  Remem- 
ber that  the  burro  is  smarter  than  you 
are  in  regard  to  the  business  of  moun- 
tain climbing.  He  has  never  had  a  nerv- 
ous breakdown,  and  if  you  will  let  him 
have  his  own  way  he  never  will  have. 
It  will  do  you  good  to  let  him  have  his 
way;  he  affords  a  tremendous  lesson  in 
patience.  Patience,  that*s  just  what  we 
need,  and  we  need  it  badly. 


100  HOW  TO  EAT 

Walking  slowly  in  the  open  air  for  two 
or  three  hours  is  the  best  exercise  for  man. 
Fortunately,  like  the  water  we  drink,  it  is 
free  to  the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich. 

For  the  nervous  man  who  is  able  to  do 
it,  I  know  of  nothing  better  to  build  up 
muscles  and  keep  the  liver  and  other  inter- 
nal organs  in  good  shape  than  sawing 
wood.  Don't  scorn  this  sort  of  exercise 
because  you  have  been  told  that  the 
ex-Kaiser  is  taking  it.  That  is  not  to  be 
laid  up  against  the  wood  or  the  exercise, 
for,  quite  fortunately,  the  wood  does  not 
care  who  saws  it. 

Get  some  wood,  then,  and  a  buck  saw, 
and  saw  wood  for  your  own  benefit.  You 
can  do  this  morning  and  evening.  Wood 
sawing  brings  into  play  every  muscle  in 
the  body,  and  the  exercise  is  just  enough 
to  make  a  man  comfortably  tired  without 
doing  him  harm. 

Many  people  who  go  to  sanitariums  for 
a  cure  pay  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  dol- 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE        101 

lars  per  week  for  the  privilege  of  sawing 
wood,  and  you  can  take  this  exercise  just 
as  well  and  at  considerably  less  expense 
at  home,  sawing  your  own  wood  instead 
of  that  of  the  sanitarium. 

Another  splendid  diversion  for  a  man 
with  "nerves,'*  if  he  can  have  it,  is  a  small 
workshop  where  he  can  make  just  any  old 
thing  out  of  boards  and  nails.  If  one  is 
apt  in  this  line,  he  can  make  things  that 
will  interest  children.  This  sort  of  work 
requires  a  certain  kind  of  concentration 
that  is  most  excellent  for  the  nervous  suf- 
ferer. This  suggestion  would  of  course 
apply  to  a  woman,  too,  if  she  cared  to  try 
such  an  experiment.  Sewing,  and  espe- 
cially fine  needlework,  is  very  trying  to  a 
woman's  nerves,  and  if  she  has  broken 
down  under  that  kind  of  work  she  should 
quit  it  and  do  something  else.  If  she  has 
to  make  her  living  in  that  way,  she  of  all 
people  should  observe  the  outdoor  rules 
as  well  as  rules  for  dieting. 


102  HOW  TO  EAT 

I  am  sure  nervous  people  profit  by  fre- 
quenting all  possible  outdoor  games.  If  a 
number  of  people  afflicted  with  "nerves** 
could  get  together  and  take  daily  walks 
and  at  the  same  time  determine  that  their 
conversation  should  always  have  a  humor- 
ous slant,  it  would  help  all  of  them 
wonderfully. 

Riding  in  an  automobile  is  beneficial  if 
the  machine  is  driven  slowly  and  the 
patient  is  kept  out  of  doors  from  three  to 
four  hours.  But  the  fast  driving  that  is 
generally  done  is  bad  for  these  people. 
They  come  back  from  a  ride  worse  than 
when  they  started. 

It  may  be  set  down  as  a  general  rule 
that  any  form  of  outdoor  exercise  or  play 
is  good  for  the  nervous  person  if  it  is 
not  violent. 

Nervous  people  should,  if  possible,  take 
a  vacation  once  a  year  and  get  into  new 
surroundings.  I  am  certain,  however,  that 
it  does  not  make  any  difference  where  one 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE        103 

lives.  A  man  is  just  as  likely  to  have  a 
breakdown  in  one  part  of  the  world  as 
another.  While  on  these  vacations  he 
should  stick  to  his  rules  just  as  rigidly 
as  when  he  is  at  home. 

I  have  had  letters  from  people  in 
Canada  and  from  others  in  Florida  who 
have  suffered  nervous  breakdowns.  In 
California  some  go  to  pieces.  I  have  had 
many  letters  from  people  living  there  who 
have  broken  down.  People  also  break 
down  in  Colorado  and  in  New  York;  in  fact, 
in  every  state  in  the  Union.  Climate  does 
not  seem  to  make  any  difference  so  far  as 
this  trouble  is  concerned,  with  the  excep- 
tion that  in  high  altitudes  I  have  observed 
nervous  people  are  inclined  to  be  more 
restless  than  elsewhere.  Some  years  ago 
I  went  up  Pike's  Peak,  to  the  Summit 
House.  I  went  to  bed  and  spent  the  night 
there,  but  I  do  not  say  I  slept,  for  in  reality 
I  slept  only  about  half  an  hour.  I  was 
not  at  all  sick  at  the  stomach,  as  so  many 


104  HOW  TO  EAT 

are  who  climb  up  there;  I  had  prevented 
this  by  eating  a  very  light  breakfast  and 
chewing  my  food  to  a  cream.  But  I  was 
extremely  nervous.  I  have  found  a  great 
many  other  nervous  people  who  do  not 
feel  quite  right  when  in  a  high  altitude. 
As  a  general  rule,  sea  level  is  as  good  a 
place  as  a  nervous  individual  can  find  to 
live.  But  people  break  down  there,  too. 
The  diet,  you  see,  is  the  big  thing.  And 
when  I  say  **diet"  I  mean  the  way  food 
is  eaten  and  the  amount  eaten  quite  as 
much  as  I  do  the  kind  of  food  eaten. 

And  once  more  let  me  say,  systematic 
outdoor  exercise  also  counts,  and  you  can't 
keep  fit  if  you  exercise  only  one,  two,  or 
three  days  a  week.  Some  people  who 
take  long  walks  in  the  coimtry  on  Sunday 
think  that  will  suffice.  But  it  will  not. 
You  must  have  exercise  every  day  and 
must  have  some  play  along  with  it.  Gym- 
nasium work  is  of  very  little  value  as  com- 
pared to  outdoor  exercise. 


VALUE  OF  OUTDOOR  LIFE        105 

In  the  summertime,  gardening  is  a 
splendid  form  of  exercise.  And  so  is  the 
care  of  a  small  flock  of  chickens,  which  is 
possible  for  those  living  in  the  smaller 
tov/ns.  It  is  always  better,  when  taking 
outdoor  exercise,  to  have  something  defi- 
nite to  do.  When  walking  it  is  a  good 
plan,  if  you  can,  to  have  some  definite 
place  to  go.  And  if  you  have  an  agree- 
able companion  to  keep  up  a  rapid-fire 
talk,  that  will  help  also.  All  these  things 
are  mentally  stimulating. 

Then,  if  possible,  sleep  the  year  round 
on  a  sleeping  porch.  If  you  don't  pos- 
sess a  porch,  then,  have  all  the  windows 
in  your  sleeping  room  wide  open  day  and 
night. 

If  for  a  time  you  have  to  take  physic, 
it  is  best  to  take  some  hot  mineral  water 
half  an  hour  before  breakfast.  But 
adhering  to  dieting  and  exercise,  and  eat- 
ing enough  apples,  usually  overcomes 
constipation. 


106  HOW  TO  EAT 

Now,  there  are  some  things  about  which 
a  person  must  use  his  own  good  judgment. 
For  instance,  if  you  have  any  bad  teeth 
you  should  at  once  go  to  a  good  dentist 
and  have  them  attended  to.  Nobody 
with  bad  teeth  can  have  good  health. 

Again,  if  your  tonsils  have  become  mere 
pus  sacs  you  will  have  to  go  to  a  good 
nose  and  throat  specialist  and  have  them 
removed  before  you  can  expect  to  have 
good  health.  This,  however,  applies  to 
all  people,  whether  nervous  or  not. 

The  same  thing  is  true  with  regard  to 
your  eyes.  If  you  are  suffering  from  eye 
strain  because  you  need  glasses,  you  can- 
not hope  to  get  well  of  ''nerves'*  until 
your  eyes  are  properly  fitted  to  glasses  by 
some  reliable  eye  specialist.  These  are 
things  that  each  individual  must  discover 
and  do  for  himself.  He  should  consult  a 
dentist,  an  oculist,  an  aurist,  or  other 
specialist  according  to  his  particular  need. 


V.    EFFECT  OF  RIGHT  LIVING  ON 
WORRY  AND  UNHAPPINESS 


"Neither  melancholy  nor  any  other 
affection  of  the  mind  can  hurt  bodies  gov- 
erned with  temperance  and  regularity." 

—  CORNARO 


V.     EFFECT  OF  RIGHT  LIVING  ON 
WORRY  AND   UNHAPPINESS 

A  very  sad  thing  about  some  nervous 
people  is  the  fact  that  in  their  Hves  there 
are  domestic  or  other  troubles  which  no 
physician  can  overcome.  Some  of  them 
live  in  depressing  surroundings,  but  for  all 
these  there  is  hope.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  if  we  can  restore  the  brain  to  a  per- 
fectly normal,  healthful  state  the  human 
being  can  bear  more  suffering  than  when 
the  brain  is  affected.  Perhaps  when  speak- 
ing of  the  spirit  we  had  better  call  it  that, 
rather  than  the  brain,  for  that  mysterious 
something  we  call  spirit  does  make  its 
home  in  the  brain  of  man.  This  has  been 
proven  scientifically.  So  then,  in  this  life 
the  temple  of  the  spirit,  or  soul,  does  affect 
the  mind.    And  when  I  say  this  life,   I 

109 


no  HOW  TO  EAT 

take  the  opportunity  to  say  here  that  I 
not  only  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  but  now,  at  45,  I  am  as  certain  of  it 
as  I  am  of  my  own  existence.  But  for 
some  reason — although  as  yet  no  one 
understands  why  it  should  do  so — when 
this  temple  in  which  the  spirit  dwells  is 
out  of  condition,  it  affects  the  soul  or  spirit. 
So,  you  see,  if  we  can  make  the  physical 
man  or  woman  well,  we  most  certainly 
can  help  the  spirit  that  dwells  within 
the  body. 

And  so  I  recommend  dieting,  temper- 
ance in  eating,  and  the  careful  chewing  of 
food  to  all  those  sufferers  who  imfortu- 
nately  live  in  depressing  surroimdings 
and  cannot  get  away  from  them.  When 
referring  to  the  many  pitiful  letters  I  have 
received  from  poor  himian  beings  thus 
situated,  I  realize  that  I  am  treading  on 
sacred  groimd.  Such  things  are  written, 
of  course,  to  a  physician  in  confidence  and 
the  confidence  must  therefore  be  forever 


EFFECT  OF  RIGHT  LIVING        111 

sacred.  I  have  not  only  had  letters  from 
these  unfortunate  people,  but  have  repeat- 
edly come  in  contact  with  many  of  them 
in  their  every  day  life.  I  know  well  what 
added  suffering  such  conditions  bring 
to    them. 

I  know  of  nothing  in  this  world  more 
pitiful  than  a  noble,  high-spirited,  ambi- 
tious woman,  pure  and  clean  of  heart,  who 
marries  a  man  and  becomes  the  mother  of 
his  children  and  is  then  condemned  to  live 
the  life  of  a  mere  animal.  And  all  too  fre- 
quently the  opposite  also  obtains.  Some- 
times a  man  of  high,  pure  purpose  finds 
that  he  has  chosen  as  the  mother  of  his 
children  a  coarse,  sensual  woman.  Now 
why  in  the  world  were  these  two  people 
attracted  to  each  other?  This  is  one  of 
life's  biggest  puzzles  to  those  who  have 
thought  much  along  this  line.  In  many 
instances  extreme  youth  is  the  reason 
given.  While  youth  is  mating  time,  it  also 
is  the  time  of  bad  judgment.    Thousands 


112  HOW  TO  EAT 

of  young  people  have  made  this  dread- 
ful mistake  simply  because  they  married 
too  yoimg.  On  the  other  hand,  youth 
is  not  altogether  to  blame.  When  people, 
young  or  old,  are  courting,  each  individual 
endeavors  to  appear  at  his  or  her  best 
before  the  other.  Without  being  actually 
aware  of  it,  under  such  circumstances  both 
man  and  woman  are  doing  all  that  lies  in 
their  power  to  deceive  one  another. 

If  people  would  do  their  courting  in 
everyday  clothes,  and  if  the  girl  would  go 
about  her  housework  while  the  man  looked 
on,  or  better  still,  if  he  helped  her  with  it 
for  one  or  two  years,  they  would  undoubt- 
edly become  better  acquainted. 

But,  after  all,  except,  perhaps,  in  unusual 
cases,  there  is  absolutely  nothing  by  which 
people  know  that  they  are  going  to  be  prop- 
erly mated.  If  a  man  with  a  tendency 
to  neurasthenia  breaks  down  and  is  tied 
to  a  nagging  wife,  that  is  usually  the  last 
straw  in  the  way  of  his  recovery. 


EFFECT  OF  RIGHT  LIVING        113 

This  is  just  as  true  of  the  woman  who 
breaks  down  and  has  a  nagging  husband. 
There  are,  I  regret  to  say,  thousands  of 
such  cases  ail  over  the  country.  On  the 
other  hand  I  have  had  a  man  come  to  me 
and  say  that  he  was  willing  to  do  anything 
on  earth  to  aid  his  wife,  but  he  could  not 
get  her  to  diet  or  even  to  make  a  serious 
attempt  to  get  well.  I  am  always  tre- 
mendously sorry  for  such  a  man  because 
he  has  a  mighty  heavy  burden  to  bear. 
Such  a  wife  should  try  to  get  well  as  much 
for  the  man's  sake  as  for  her  own.  She 
should  understand  that  she  is  needlessly 
torturing  the  one  best  friend  she  has  on 
earth. 

A  woman  of  this  kind  should  remember 
that,  no  matter  how  much  she  may  suffer, 
she  is  hopelessly  selfish  if  she  will  not  do 
all  in  her  power  to  diet  and  to  obey  other 
necessary  rules  that  will  enable  her  to  get 
rid  of  the  malady.  Sometimes  when  a 
physician  puts  this  before  her  kindly  but 


114  HOW   TO  EAT 

firmly  it  results  in  her  making  a  beginning 
and  by  and  by  getting  well.  I  have  seen 
this  happen  many  times.  And  I  wish  to 
say  right  here  that  while  I  believe  I  was 
bom  with  some  natural  tact,  yet  if  I  had 
not  gone  through  all  this  horrible  suffering 
myself  I  should  not,  I  know,  be  able  to  say 
the  things  that  would  induce  these  people 
to  do  that  which  it  is  their  duty  to  do. 

And  here  is  one  big  difficulty  I  have 
always  had  to  contend  with.  Some  of 
these  people  have  tried  so  many  so-called 
nonsense  cures  —  eating  buttermilk  tab- 
lets, for  instance — and  have  had  no  bene- 
fit from  them,  that  they  are  unwilling  to 
try  the  one  and  only  thing  that  will  cure 
them — the  thing  that  will  cure  them  as 
sure  as  the  sun  shines.  I  wonder  why  it 
is  that  since  the  time  of  Christ  people  are 
always  looking  for  a  sensational  or  mirac- 
ulous cure.  Our  life  and  everything  per- 
taining to  it  is  miracle  enough,  if  we  only 
had  the  sense  to  see  it. 


EFFECT  OF  RIGHT  LIVING        115 

The  woman  or  the  man  with  "nerves'* 
is  not  going  to  get  well  eating  buttermilk 
tablets  or  taking  patent  dope  while  lying 
on  a  couch  and  shut  in  a  house.  You 
must  bestir  yourself.  You  must  get  out 
of  doors,  and  above  all,  you  must  eat  right. 
Today  thousands  of  these  people  are  lan- 
guishing in  hospitals  and  sanitariums,  and 
most  of  them  will  come  out  only  to  go 
back  again  and  again.  The  institutional 
treatment  is  good  for  the  beginning  of  the 
cure,  but  if  an  individual  with  "nerves'* 
is  going  to  get  well  and  stay  well  he 
must  change  his  lifelong  habits. 

And  I  want  to  say  again,  that  any  per- 
son, man  or  woman,  in  the  midst  of 
depressing  conditions  can  triumph  over 
them  if  he  will  eat  as  he  should  and  live 
as  he  should.  There  is  something  about 
the  human  soul,  if  it  is  pure  and  fine,  and 
if  proper  attention  is  given  to  right  living, 
that  will  enable  a  person  to  meet  great 
sorrow  and  triumph  over  it.    In  fact,  no 


116  HOW  TO  EAT 

amount  of  sorrow  can  defeat  a  person  who 
keeps  his  heart  and  body  right. 

And  I  would  have  you  all  realize  that 
there  is  something  far  more  to  us  than 
mere  bones  and  veins  and  nerves.  I  know 
the  terrible  tendency  of  the  one  with 
"nerves*'  to  get  angry.  But  lay  fast 
hold  of  yourself.  Fight  anger  as  you 
would  poison,  because  in  reality  it  is  poi- 
son to  your  nerves.  Anger  will  hurt  you; 
it  will  hurt  anybody.  But  no  matter 
how  hard  you  find  it  at  first,  get  control 
of  your  temper.  If  you  succeed  in  doing 
this  in  a  year  you  will  have  won  one  of 
the  greatest  victories  man  can  win  in  this 
world.  I  would  rather  meet  a  so-called 
plain  man  who  has  perfect  control  over 
his  physical  and  mental  faculties,  and  sit 
and  talk  quietly  with  him,  than  to  meet 
the  Prime  Minister  of  England  or  the 
President  of  the  United  States  if  either 
lacked  this  control.  For  I  say  to  you 
that  no  matter  what  others  may  say,  the 


EFFECT  OF  RIGHT  LIVING        117 

true  measure  of  success  does  not  rest  in 
the  position  you  occupy  but  in  your 
having  complete  control  of  yourself. 

If  you  are  to  gain  this  control  it  means 
that  each  day  you  are  confronted  by 
a  mighty  big  task,  but  if  finally  suc- 
cessful, you  will  have  accomplished  the 
greatest  thing  a  man  can  do  in  this  life. 
Now,  here  is  something  for  you  to  take 
hold  of,  you  who  all  these  years  have 
believed  that  your  life  ambition  has  been 
thwarted.  But  your  ambition,  let  me  tell 
you,  has  not  been  thwarted.  Perhaps 
you  have  not  done  just  what  you  wanted 
to  do.  But  it's  quite  possible  that  you 
had  no  business  trying  to  do  that  special 
thing  anyway.  Most  of  us,  I  find,  can  be 
greatly  mistaken  about  what  we  think  we 
want  to  do.  At  any  rate,  we  can  never  be 
happy  unless  we  gain  entire  control  of 
ourselves. 

This  is  something  the  person  afflicted 
with    '* nerves"    most    certainly    can    do, 


118  HOW  TO  EAT 

and  he  can  use  this  terrible  '* thing*'  as  I 
myself  and  thousands  of  others  have  used 
it  as  a  ladder  to  climb  to  the  sunlit  peaks 
where  worry  and  clouds  and  storms  can- 
not trouble.  And,  after  all,  no  matter 
who  we  are,  no  matter  how  poor  or  how 
rich  we  are,  and  no  matter  where  we  live, 
life  holds  about  the  same  general  possi- 
bilities for  all  of  us.  I  mean  by  this  that 
life  affords  to  all  the  same  opportunities 
for   real   happiness. 

I  know  very  well  that  there  are  those 
who  will  be  quite  unwilling  to  grant 
this,  but  it  is  as  true  as  the  life  we  live. 
Many  people  in  this  old  world  still  hold 
the  notion  that  those  who  roll  in  wealth 
are  the  happy  ones.  But  I  say  to  you 
this  notion  is  all  wrong,  and  from  knowl- 
edge gained  through  experience  I  know 
that  in  their  hearts  many  of  these  wealthy 
people  are  dissatisfied  and  not  one  whit 
happier  than  you  are.  The  most  restless 
people,  the  most  unhappy  people,  and  the 


EFFECT  OF  RIGHT  LIVING        119 

most  thoroughly  dissatisfied  people  that 
I  have  ever  met  have  been  people  who 
had   everything    that    riches    could   give 

them. 

Andrew  Carnegie  said  he  had  noticed 
that  after  a  man  had  accumulated  a  mil- 
lion dollars  smiles  were  seldom  seen  on 
his  face.  I  cannot  understand  why  people 
insist  on  going  through  life  making  them- 
selves and  all  those  they  really  love  miser- 
able just  because  they  do  not  happen  to 
have  riches. 

And  a  great  many  high-strung  sensi- 
tive men  are  utterly  cast  down  because 
they  have  failed  to  acquire  wealth  by  the 
time  they  are  forty-five  or  fifty  years 
of  age. 

I  wish  I  could  make  all  such  poor, 
afflicted  people  see  what  goes  to  make  up 
happiness  and  learn  the  only  way  to  be 
happy.  In  order  to  get  well  the  thing  we 
have  to  do  is  to  follow  nature's  simple 
rules  — rules  our  Creator  gave  to  us.    We 


120  HOW  TO  EAT 

must  get  control  not  only  of  our  appetites 
but  of  all  such  passions  as  anger,  hate, 
and  envy,  which  poison  our  bodies.  And 
let  us  also  cast  suspicion  out  of  our  minds. 
This  is  a  good  rule  to  observe:  Never 
suspect  folks.  It  is  useless,  an3rway,  for 
by  and  by  what  they  are  or  what  they  do 
is  always  bound  to  come  to  the  surface. 

By  gaining  perfect  control  over  your- 
self—  and  most  certainly  to  do  so  is 
worth  every  effort  you  may  make  —  you 
will  also  gain  patience,  and  that  is,  I 
think,  one  of  the  crowning  virtues.  Some- 
times I  think  it  the  greatest  of  all  virtues. 
Certainly  it  stands  very  high  in  the 
perfecting  of  character. 

To  the  sufferer  with  "nerves*'  I  would 
say:  Have  the  courage  to  believe  that 
you  are  going  to  get  well.  Then  you  can 
do  it.  No  matter  how  depressing  or  dis- 
couraging your  surroundings,  do  the  very 
best  you  can  every  day.  Then,  no  matter 
what  your  ideas  of  success  may  have  been, 


EFFECT  OF  RIGHT  LIVING        121 

you  are  really  succeeding  wonderfully! 
See  that  you  keep  right  on  doing  it!  If 
you  are  a  mother  and  have  children,  live 
for  them.  Or  if  you  are  a  father  and  have 
children,  and  have  met  with  disappoint- 
ments, live  for  those  children!  Do  every- 
thing in  your  power  to  make  them  happy, 
high  of  heart,  and  gallant  of  soul.  Do 
not  live  for  yourself,  live  for  your  children. 
If  you  have  no  children  of  your  own,  look 
about  and  get  interested  in  some  other 
person's  children.  You  will  find  a  lot  of 
children  all  around  you  —  blessed  little 
beings — that  you  can  help  to  make  happy. 
Get  your  mind  off  yourself  and  your 
troubles  and  on  the  children  of  this  world, 
and  keep  it  there. 

When  you  were  a  child  no  doubt  you 
had  many  happy  days.  Some  of  us  had 
a  very  happy  childhood,  while  others 
may  have  been  denied  what  their  hearts 
desired.  But  if  we  did  not  have  a  happy 
childhood  that  is  all  the  more  reason  why 


122  HOW  TO   EAT 

we  should  be  glad  to  help  some  other  little 
ones  have  a  happy  one.  More  and  more 
each  year  I  live  I  come  to  believe  that 
it  depends  entirely  upon  grown  people 
whether  in  this  world  children  are  happy 
or  not  happy. 

If  you  had  a  happy  childhood— and 
most  people  had— do  you  not  recall  the 
glorious  times  you  had?  I  know  you  do, 
for  we  all  do.  And  I  know,  too,  how 
much  people  affected  with  nerves  dwell 
on  those  memories,  and  how  much  they 
wish  they  might  go  back  to  those  blessed 
days  when  the  sun  was  always  shining  and 
the  birds  were  always  singing  and  the 
streams  always  beckoning  them  to  play 
along  their  sands. 

Do  you  realize  that  you  can  live  in 
those  days  again?  I  do,  and  I  go  back 
and  dwell  in  them  more  and  more  the 
older  I  get.  I  do  not  mean  that  I  am 
not  looking  forward,  for  I  am,  tremen- 
dously. 


EFFECT  OF  RIGHT  LIVING        123 

How  stupid  we  poor  miserable  creatures 
of  this  world  become  after  we  leave  our 
childhood  days  behind  us!  We  really 
should  never  lose  sight  of  them.  I  have 
said  that  the  person  afflicted  with  ** nerves*' 
should  not  run.  I  did  not  quite  mean 
all  that  implies.  After  such  a  man  has 
recovered,  if  he  has  a  good  heart,  he  should 
run  a  little.  I  run;  I  can't  help  it.  I 
feel  so  good  I  have  to  run  a  little  now  and 
then  to  work  off  steam.  But  you  know 
very  well  when  most  people  see  a  man 
running  they  at  once  think  a  house  is  afire 
somewhere. 

It  is  almost  unbelievable  that  we  should 
actually  surround  ourselves  with  so  many 
utterly  senseless  customs  that  tend  to 
nothing  but  misery  and  unhappiness.  We 
should  dress  for  comfort,  and  we  should 
have  the  courage  to  live  in  a  youthful 
world  where  all  may  be  happy.  *'If  the 
blind  lead  the  blind,"  so  the  Bible  tells 
us,  "both  shall  fall  into  the  ditch."     We 


124  HOW  TO  EAT 

need  so  to  live  and  act  that  we  shall  not 
fail  to  be  happy.  Happiness  really  is 
what  everybody  is  chasing,  but  how  very 
far  away  from  it  most  people  are  getting! 
Go  back  to  the  memories  of  your  child- 
hood. Be  with  children  and  play  with 
them  all  you  possibly  can.  If  you  are  a 
mother,  begin  this  very  day  to  exercise 
more  patience  with  your  children,  recall- 
ing over  and  over  again  that  when  you 
were  a  child  you  were  just  as  they  are. 
And  remember,  for  it  is  only  too  true,  that 
the  day  is  fast  coming  when  your  little 
boy  will  no  longer  be  a  little  boy,  he  will 
be  a  man,  and  will  have  gone  away  from 
you.  Then  many  times  you  will  wish 
him  back,  and  you  will  look  back  on  those 
days  when  you  thought  your  nerves  were 
being  ruined,  and  feel  a  great  swelling  in 
your  breast,  and  breathing  a  sigh,  whisper 
to  yourself,  "Dear  God,  I  hope  I  did  all  I 
ought  to  have  done  for  him  while  he 
was  little.'* 


EFFECT  OF  RIGHT  LIVING        125 

I  know  that  any  one  can  live  with  chil- 
dren and  find  happiness  in  being  one  with 
them,  and  I  know  of  no  better  thing  to 
do.  After  we  have  hold  of  ourselves  with 
a  firm  grip  we  should  endeavor  to  do 
this. 

I  have  had  people  suffering  with 
"nerves**  tell  me  they  had  lost  a  little 
boy  or  a  little  girl,  and  that  it  seems  im- 
possible to  get  over  this  loss.  I  cannot 
tell  you  how  much  I  long  to  help  such 
people.  But  I  always  urge  them  to  go 
right  on  playing  with  other  children  and 
to  remember,  for  to  me  it  is  certain  truth, 
that  they  will  meet  that  little  child  again. 
There  should  be  nothing  to  grieve  about 
in  such  a  loss.  To  find  compensation, 
the  one  who  has  had  such  a  grief  has  only 
to  keep  on  playing  the  part  of  a  true  man 
or  true  woman.  Childhood  with  all  its 
pains  and  pleasures  is  everywhere  about 
us.  And  childhood  is  only  the  beginning 
of  immortality. 


126  HOW  TO  EAT 

Late  one  night,  a  number  of  years  ago, 
I  was  sitting  in  a  little  restaurant  in  a 
western  town,  and  was  feeling  very  lonely 
and  miserable.  Sorrow  weighed  heavily 
upon  me  that  night  and  the  world  never 
seemed  blacker,  yet  I  think  my  belief  in 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  had  never 
been  more  certain.  I  looked  up  and  high 
on  the  smoke-stained  wall  hung  a  painted 
picture  of  an  old-time  ship  with  many  sails 
set.  This  painting  pictured  the  ship  sail- 
ing through  the  darkness  of  night.  But 
through  the  dark,  seemingly  restless  clouds 
the  moon  gleamed  brightly  on  the  white 
canvas  of  the  sails. 

I  had  never  before  been  so  powerfully 
impressed  by  any  picture.  It  seemed 
fairly  to  speak  to  me.  I  took  an  envelope 
from  my  pocket  and  set  down  the 
verses  given  here.  These  verses  were 
afterwards  published  in  one  or  two  metro- 
politan papers.  Mr.  James  Bryce,  then 
English  Ambassador  at  Washington,  saw 


EFFECT  OF  RIGHT  LIVING        127 

them  and  wrote  me  a  beautiful  letter  about 
them,  in  which  he  said,  *^Your  little  poem 
'The  Last  Journey'  attracts  me  very 
much/*  You  see  he  was  beginning  to 
grow  old,  and  I  knew  that  was  the  reason 
these  lines  of  mine  had  made  an  appeal 
to  him. 

Not  very  long  after  this  I  also  had  a 
letter  about  the  verses  from  Dr.   Osier, 
then    Regius    Professor    of    Medicine    at 
Oxford.     In  it  he  said,  ^'I  have  read  your 
little  poem  'The  Last  Journey'  with  unus- 
ual  interest."    And   again   I   knew  why. 
You  see,  it  does  not  matter  very  much 
what   our  rank  or  our  station   here,   no 
matter  whether  a  human  being  is  a  king 
or  what  his  station  in  life  may  be,  he  still 
is  a  human  being.    We  are  all  reaching 
out  after  the  same  great  thing.    The  fine 
thing  about  the  sentiment  of  these  little 
verses  is  that  although  you  wish  to  and 
may    not    believe  it,   it    is    coming    true 
anyway. 


THE  LAST  JOURNEY 
One  night  when  in  a  youthful  dream, 
I  saw  a  moonlit  sea, 
And  sailing  o'er  its  dark  expanse, 
A  ship  of  mystery. 

The  lonely  traveler  seemed  to  be 
On  some  great  mission  bound. 
As  o'er  the  darkened  waters 
It  sailed  without  a  sound. 

Long  years  have  passed;  old  age  has  come: 
The  fire  of  life  is  low. 
Again  I  think  of  that  strange  dream 
Of  youth  so  long  ago. 

And  in  the  ship  that  swiftly  sailed 
That  silent  moonlit  sea, 
I  seem  to  see  a  storm-tossed  soul 
Bound  for  eternity. 

Now  to  my  mind  this  sweet  dream  comes, 
A  peaceful  memory, 
For  soon  FU  be  A  YOUTH  again, 
With  Immortality! 


y 


"TPS! 


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